Lab tests confirm Alexei Navalny was killed by poisoning, says wife

Warsaw: The wife of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said on Wednesday that independent laboratory tests have confirmed he was poisoned while serving his sentence in an Arctic prison earlier this year.

“Laboratories in two countries came to the conclusion that Alexei was killed. Specifically: poisoned,” Yulia Navalnaya stated in a video message posted on social media. She added that the biological samples were secretly smuggled out of Russia for testing.

Long battle with the Kremlin

Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, had for years exposed corruption in Russia through his social media channels, organised protests, and built opposition campaigns. His growing influence was repeatedly curtailed by the authorities, with criminal charges widely seen as politically motivated.

He first rose to prominence after finishing second in the 2013 Moscow mayoral election with 27.2% of the vote. However, subsequent embezzlement convictions barred him from contesting the 2018 presidential race.

In August 2020, Navalny narrowly survived an assassination attempt after being poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. He was flown to Berlin for treatment, later accusing President Putin of ordering the attack. Investigations linked the incident to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

Despite the risk, Navalny returned to Moscow in January 2021, where he was immediately arrested. His detention triggered nationwide protests. Over the next few years, he faced a series of convictions, including a nine-year sentence in 2022 and a 19-year sentence on extremism charges in 2023, in trials condemned internationally as politically motivated.

Final months and death

In December 2023, Navalny mysteriously went missing from prison for nearly three weeks before resurfacing in a harsh penal colony above the Arctic Circle. On February 2024, Russian authorities announced that the 47-year-old had died in custody, sparking widespread protests inside Russia and international condemnation.

Now, with fresh laboratory evidence pointing to poisoning, questions about the circumstances of Navalny’s death, and accountability, are certain to intensify.