NextFin news, Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, revealed on this Wednesday that two independent foreign laboratories confirmed that Navalny was poisoned shortly before his death in a Russian prison located in the Arctic Circle in 2024.
Navalny died suddenly at the age of 47 on a Friday, February 16, 2024, while serving a prison sentence in the Russian Arctic. His death deprived the Russian opposition of its most prominent leader.
In a video posted on the social media platform X, Yulia Navalnaya stated that biological material from her husband was smuggled abroad in 2024 and tested by two laboratories in different countries. Both labs reached the same conclusion that Navalny was killed by poisoning.
She demanded that the laboratories release their findings, which she described as the "inconvenient truth," emphasizing that the results are of public importance and that everyone deserves to know the truth. However, she did not specify the type of poison identified by the labs.
The Kremlin has dismissed allegations of poisoning as nonsense. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to Navalnaya's claims by saying, "I don't know anything about these statements of hers, and I can't say anything." President Vladimir Putin has previously stated that there were plans to exchange Navalny in a prisoner swap with the West before his death.
Alexei Navalny was known for his outspoken criticism of President Vladimir Putin's government, describing it as a corrupt state run by thieves and spies. Navalny had survived a previous poisoning attempt in Siberia in 2020, after which he was treated in Germany before voluntarily returning to Russia in 2021, where he was arrested and imprisoned on charges he and his supporters say were politically motivated.
Yulia Navalnaya has repeatedly accused the Russian government of orchestrating her husband's death, a claim the Kremlin denies. U.S. intelligence agencies have reportedly concluded that President Putin did not order Navalny's killing.
Navalny's death in the harsh conditions of a Russian Arctic prison and the confirmation of poisoning by foreign labs add to the ongoing controversy and international scrutiny surrounding his imprisonment and demise.
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