It has long been proven that Vladimir Putin is a dictator. The Kremlin itself has confirmed this. “There is no greater power than the president’s word,” the chairman of the Council of the Russian Federation said in December 2022. The body is the upper house of parliament and is loyal to Putin.
Even by scientific criteria, Russia can now be considered a dictatorship. No important decision is made without the consent of those in power. And so all (Western) experts quickly agreed that Alexei Navalny most likely died of an unnatural death. The Russian opposition and human rights activists even accuse the Russian power apparatus under Putin of murder.
There are now serious indications that the Kremlin may have been directly involved in Navalny’s death. The Russian opposition portal Meduza.org, citing the human rights website Gulagu.net, reports numerous oddities in connection with Navalny’s death. For example, the involvement of the Russian domestic secret service FSB.
Visit from two FSB agents?
The independent Russian online portal Gulagu.net apparently managed to get in touch with one of Navalny’s prisoners who described the events the day before the official death report. This was published on February 16. However, the evening before, two FSB officers came to penal colony No. 3 “Polarwolf” in Siberia and allegedly dismantled cameras and listening devices. They “could have recorded what happened to Alexei Navalny on February 15,” the prisoner said. According to Gulagu.net, this visit was even mentioned in a report by a department of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
As Kremlin critic Novaya Gazeta Europa further reports, on the evening in question there was a ‘riot’ in the prison camp because the guards carried out an accelerated evening check. This is very unusual, because such checks usually only take place before public holidays. “They locked us in the barracks, warned us not to move between the barracks and reinforced the guards,” the newspaper also quoted a prisoner.
The fellow prisoner also says that the excitement in Penal Colony No. 3 continued on the morning of February 16. Accordingly, the guards temporarily confiscated “mobile phones, cards and even boilers” and suspected the prisoners of a general inspection. However, this is usually announced weeks in advance. Instead, a “committee” appeared, the prisoner said. The report does not specify what type of committee this is.
The chronology of Navalny’s death announcement is also unusual. According to official information from Russian authorities, the death of Putin’s jailed opponent is said to have occurred on February 16 at 2:17 p.m. After a ‘walk’, the 47-year-old suddenly complained of not feeling well and subsequently lost consciousness, it is said.
The cause was clear a few minutes after his death
Just two minutes later, at 2:19 p.m., Gulagu.net writes on its Telegram channel, the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug published a corresponding press release on its official website. And a minute later, at 2:20 p.m., the state news agencies Tass and Ria Novosti again announced the death of the “convicted Navalny.”
They quoted from the prison service’s statement that “all necessary resuscitation measures were carried out without positive results.” “The ambulance crew pronounced the convict dead,” the report said. It is unclear how state news agencies were able to obtain information about Navalny’s death so quickly and then report it on their website.
But the pattern continues: six minutes after Navalny’s official death, at 2:23 p.m., Telegram channel 112, which is close to state authorities, already knew that Russian authorities believed a “blood clot” was the likely cause of death. And at 2:30 p.m., Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Putin had been informed of Navalny’s death – less than fifteen minutes after Navalny’s death was said to have occurred.
How the authorities can call the cause “blood clots” so soon after Navalny’s announced time of death is a question being asked not only by the human rights activists on Gulagu.net, but also by the dissident’s confidants. They suspect that the prominent anti-corruption activist was murdered the night before.
Not to the coroner’s office, but to the county hospital
And the oddities persist. Even on Sunday, two days after Navalny’s death, relatives had not yet been given access to the body. His mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, had only received news of her death in the ‘Polarwolf’ prison camp. Although she was informed that his body was in the town of Salekhard for examination, lawyers were initially unable to locate the dead man there.
According to civil rights activists, more than 12,000 people in Russia called for the dead politician’s body to be handed over to his relatives. The civil rights platform OWD-Info only started the petition late Saturday afternoon. The release should take place quickly, the statement said: “At least after his death, Alexei Navalny should be with his relatives.”
The fact that the body is now being kept in the mortuary of the district hospital in Salekhard, about 50 kilometers from the ‘Polarwolf’ penal colony, is also an unusual occurrence, according to ‘Novaya Gazeta’. Normally, the bodies of those who died in the penal colony would be taken directly to the coroner’s office and not to the mortuary of the district hospital, the newspaper wrote, citing a paramedic from Salekhard’s emergency medical service.
‘They took the body to the morgue [der Klinik] drove, pushed him inside and then placed two police officers in front of the door to guard the entrance. They might as well have put up a sign that said, ‘Something mysterious is going on here,'” the paramedic said. An autopsy had not yet taken place, at least not on Saturday. In addition, the dead man’s body is said to have bruises.
No protests before the mock elections in March
Was there a fight in the penal colony before Navalny’s death? And how can authorities provide information about the cause of death if an autopsy has not yet taken place? These questions do not only concern Navalny’s relatives. The corpse of the opposition figure could provide information about this.
But according to DPA news agency, lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov fears that state investigators could hide the dead man from the public for a long time. After the first check, criminal proceedings can be initiated to carry out further manipulations. “Finding a legal reason to keep the body for months or even longer is very simple,” he said. If Navalny is not handed over to his relatives within five days, there is strong suspicion of a cover-up, he speculated.
Other observers suspect that authorities will not release Navalny’s body for the time being due to Russia’s upcoming presidential elections. There are fears that the funeral of the Kremlin opponent could spark popular protests that could be uncomfortable for Putin. The Kremlin leader, who changed the constitution four years ago specifically to allow him to run for a new term, wants to be elected president for the fifth time. It is certain that these elections will be a sham election, as is usual in dictatorships.
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
