Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's wife claims he suffered from a chemical attack
In February 2024, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny passed away in the Jarp penal colony, one of the harshest facilities in the Russian penal system, located in the Arctic Circle. His death sparked widespread protests and investigations, both domestically and internationally.
Navalny, a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government, was poisoned for the second time in 2020 on a plane from Omsk to Moscow. An emergency landing and medical intervention saved his life. The poison that almost claimed his life is believed to have been Novichok, a nerve agent first manufactured in the Soviet Union.
Yulia Navalnaya, Alexei's wife, accused the Russian authorities of poisoning her husband and demanded that the laboratories that conducted the analyses publish their results. She also claimed to have obtained smuggled biological samples from her husband to analyze. The biological samples were analyzed in Germany and France, but Yulia did not specify what poison was used or in which two countries the samples were analyzed.
Representatives of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and investigative journalists from Bellingcat tracked down suspects who admitted to placing the nerve agent in Navalny's underwear. However, the Russian authorities denied these allegations.
In a turn of events, after Navalny's death, some of his followers, including Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza, were part of a prisoner exchange between the West and Russia in August 2024. Yashin's Russian citizenship was revoked by the authorities, leaving him stateless, a move explicitly prohibited in the Russian Constitution, Article 6.
The images that surfaced show the difficult conditions Navalny lived in his last days, with few belongings. Maria Pevchikh, an opponent of the FBK, published images of the cell where Navalny spent his last months and died.
The funeral of Alexei Navalny was the last open display of rejection of the regime in Moscow in recent years. Yulia Navalnaya accused 'Western countries' of refusing to investigate her husband's death for legal and political reasons.
Alex Bustos, a correspondent in Moscow, is continuing to follow this developing story closely. As the investigation continues, the world waits for answers regarding the circumstances surrounding Navalny's death.
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