Yulia Navalnaya says that laboratory tests show that Alexei Navalny was poisoned in prison

Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of the late Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny, said that foreign laboratory tests on organic samples obtained from her husband showed that he was poisoned.

Navalny, 47, died suddenly on February 16, 2024, in a Russian prison in the Arctic Circle, depriving the opposition of its most charismatic and popular leader.

Yulia has repeatedly accused Russia of having killed him, an assertion that the Kremlin rejects as nonsense.

She published a video on X in which she said that Navalny’s biological material had been introduced as a smuggling abroad in 2024 and that two laboratories examined the equipment.

“These laboratories in two different countries have reached the same conclusion: Alexei was killed. More specifically, he was poisoned,” said Navalnaya.

She demanded that the laboratories disclose their conclusions on what she called the “embarrassing truth”. She did not specify what poison the laboratories had found.

Last year, Navalnaya rejected information from the Russian investigators that Navalny died of a “combination of diseases”.

Look at the evolution of Navalny’s campaigns against Putin:

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The Russian opposition chief and vocal critic of the Kremlin Alexei Navalny died in prison, according to Russian officials. About this producer Lauren Bird examines the moments that made him a famous anti-corruption and political opponent of Vladimir Putin.

In her video, Navalnaya described her husband’s last moments. He felt bad in a small exercise cell and was crouching on pain, she said. But it was then put in a punishment cell.

“Alexei is lying on the ground and pulled his knees to his stomach and groaned in pain,” she said. “He said that his chest and stomach burned. Then he started vomiting.”

She showed a photo of what she said was the cell. He showed a bunch of vomit on the ground.

Navalnaya said that the truth about the death of her husband was not practical for certain unidentified politicians in the West, but gave no details.

Navalny survived an apparent poisoning in 2020, when he fell ill on a flight from Tomsk, Siberia, Moscow. The pilot had an emergency landing, saving his life, and Navalny was transported by plane to Berlin, where he was treated for the effects of a neurotoxin that German military tests revealed to be Novichok, a poison developed in the Soviet Union.

Widow, allies threatened in Russia

A former lawyer, Navalny gained importance with blogs that have exposed what he said was a vast corruption through the Russian elite, and he supported the opulent lifestyle of President Vladimir Putin and senior Russian officials.

Navalny was arrested countless times for organizing public rallies and continued several times for accusations such as corruption, embezzlement and fraud. He said the accusations and convictions were politically motivated.

Despite his death, Russian investigators continued to launch new cases against his supporters and partners, many of whom were appointed as “foreign agents” or “extremists”.

Navalnaya, who has lived abroad, has been the subject of an arrest warrant in Russia since last year to be an alleged extremist.

In January, three lawyers who had worked for Navalny were found guilty of belonging to an extremist group and sentenced up to five and a half years in a criminal colony.

In April, four journalists were sentenced to five and a half years each after being convicted of working for the prohibited organization of Navalny.