Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of Alexei Navalny - the former number one opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin - has claimed that her husband died as a result of poisoning perpetrated by the Kremlin. She claims to have in her possession two laboratory tests proving her accusations.
Death in prison
Mr. Navalny, 47, died under mysterious circumstances in an Arctic penal colony on February 16, 2024.
Biological samples collected from Navalny
"My husband, Alexei Navalny, was poisoned. This is not just talk. I have every reason to say so," said Mrs Navalnaya in a denunciation video published on X. She said she based her claim on the analysis carried out by two Western laboratories of biological samples collected from her husband following his death and smuggled out of Russia.
A wave of suspicions against the Kremlin
The Russian authorities' refusal to release Mr. Navalny's body to his family for several days after his death had sparked a wave of suspicion against the Kremlin.
The Kremlin has denied these accusations
The Kremlin has denied these accusations, maintaining that Navalny died as a result of a combination of illnesses, including cardiac arrhythmia caused by high blood pressure.
Already a target for poisoning in 2020
This fervent anti-corruption and anti-Putin activist had already been the victim of a poisoning attempt in Siberia in 2020. Mr. Navalny then spent several months convalescing in Germany.
Severe repression by the Kremlin
As soon as he returned to Russia in January 2021, he was arrested and sentenced to a series of increasingly harsh prison terms. His supporters in Russia were also severely repressed, and many were forced to flee the country.
Putting pressure on laboratories
Noting that Navalny's widow had not specified in her video which poison had been used against her husband, CNN contacted the opponent's team for details. The latter replied: "[Yulia Navalnaya] had not yet received the full reports from the laboratories concerned [...] One of the reasons she went public with this allegation was to put pressure on these laboratories to post their findings."
He was "vomiting and screaming in pain", says Pevchikh
A close associate of Navalny, Maria Pevtchikh, said on Telegram that "the opponent was, at the time of his death, lying on the floor, vomiting and screaming in pain [...] The guards left him there, closed the bars and the door of his cell". She published photographs of a cell taken just after Mr. Navalny's death. According to her, they show what appears to be vomit and blood on the floor.