The wife of late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny rejected the recent findings that her husband died by a “combination of diseases” in an Arctic prison colony in February.
London: In the latest development regarding the mysterious death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, his wife Yulia Navalnaya stated on Thursday that officials investigating her husband’s death informed her that it was caused by a ‘combination of diseases’—a finding she rejected as preposterous.
Navalnaya declared her plans to seek criminal investigation to investigate her husband’s untimely demise, which she suspects to be an act of murder. She further emphasized that Navalny’s team will continue their independent probing into the matter.
47-year-old Alexei Navalny, a popular figure in the Russian opposition died on February 16, has left a void in the opposition group. Navalny spent more than three decades behind bars on accusations he always maintained were cooked-up to mute his incessant criticism of President Vladimir Putin.
In a staunch rebuke, the Kremlin outright rejected accusations by supporters suggesting that Putin had a hand in the murder. A detailed official correspondence, recently received and shared on social platforms by Yulia Navalnaya, stated categorically that her husband’s death had no criminal angles involved and thereby offered no ground for an investigation to ensue.
According to Navalnaya, the letter was signed by Alexander Varapayev, the same investigative official who initially refused to handover her husband’s body to his mother. Varapayev, according to her, gave the body on condition that his mother bury him in secret.
As per the letter, Navalny fell sick while walking in a prison yard, and was rushed to a medical unit where staff tried to save him with “indirect heart massage and artificial respiration”. An emergency team also unable to revive him.
Navalnaya rubbished the version and termed it a cover-up.
“We know very well that when Alexei became ill, he was taken not to the medical unit, but back to the punishment cell. That he was dying there, alone. That he was taken to the medical unit already unconscious. That in the last minutes before his death he complained of acute pain in his stomach. Why is all this not in the resolution of the Investigative Committee?” she wrote.
List Of Diseases Alexei Navalny Had
The official communique relayed that Navalny’s demise resulted from a mix of several ailments such as high blood pressure, pancreatitis, injuries to the spine, and the herpes virus in his lungs and spleen. The document also noted an abrupt surge in his blood pressure which interfered with his heart’s natural rhythm, consequently overloading the heart chambers and subsequently leading to his death. Nonetheless, Navalnaya challenged the report’s conclusions. She underscored the fact that a vast number of Russians grapple with similar chronic conditions and yet, they don’t often pass away so abruptly. She further expressed doubts over the diagnosis of heart arrhythmia.
“Tell me, how did you discover this arrhythmia during the autopsy? Heart rhythm disturbances cannot be determined posthumously, and during his lifetime Alexei did not have any heart diseases,” she said.
She recounted that during Navalny’s court viewing prior to his demise, he appeared lively and cheerful. It puzzled her to see someone suffering from various ailments being kept in prolonged seclusion. Navalnaya urged for a legal probe but apprehended its unlikelihood under Putin’s reign. Taking matters into her own hands, she assured to carry out an independent inquiry. Additionally, she appealed to prison staffers and bureaucrats to come forward with any pertinent details, promising them utmost privacy and apt compensation for their information.