Ukraine’s top spy chief has claimed Alexi Navalny may have “died from a blood clot” amid widespread speculation that the outspoken Putin critic was murdered by Russian spies.
The anti-corruption activist, who was serving a 19-year prison sentence in the Arctic penal colony Polar Wolf, was found dead earlier this month and Russia claimed he died from “sudden death syndrome” while walking.
However, many have speculated that he was murdered on Putin’s orders, with Latvian President Edgar Rinkeish stating bluntly: “Whatever you think about Alexi Navalny, as a politician, he was simply brutally murdered by the Kremlin.”
Today, however, KYrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence service, suggested his death could be due to natural causes.
He told reporters: “I You may be disappointed, but what we know is that he really died from a blood clot. And this is more or less confirmed. tYours was not taken from the Internet, but, unfortunately, a natural one. [death].’
Anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, who was serving a 19-year prison sentence in the Arctic penal colony Polar Wolf, was found dead earlier this month.
Ukraine’s top spy chief Kyrylo Budanov claimed Navalny may have “died from a blood clot”
Vladimir Putin has not commented publicly on the death, but the Kremlin called the West’s reaction “hysterical.”
Prison authorities refused to release Nalvany’s body for more than a week after his death. Yesterday, her body was finally returned to her mother after an agonizing nine-day wait.
‘Alexey’s body was handed over to his mother. Thank you very much to everyone who asked us for this,” wrote Kira Yarmysh in X.
He said mother Lyudmila Ivanovna, 69, was still in Salekhard, near the spooky Arctic penal colony IK-3 where her son had been detained since December on “charges of extremism”, and that the funeral was still “pending”. .
“We don’t know if the authorities will intervene to make it happen as the family wants and as Alexey deserves,” he added.
Following Navalny’s death, his grieving widow, Yulia Navalnaya, accused Putin of “torturing him to death.”
Before the release of her body, she said: ‘Give us my husband’s body. ANDYou tortured him alive and now you continue to torture him dead. You mock the remains of the dead.
“No true Christian could ever do what Putin is now doing with Alexei’s body.”
His mother was initially prevented from seeing her son’s remains, and reports claimed he had been left battered and bruised. She said Russian officials were trying to blackmail her and threatened to “do something” to her body.
Navalny, right, hugs his wife Yulia, as he was released by a court in Kirov, Russia, on July 19, 2013, after being freed after being found guilty of embezzlement.
Lyudmila Navalnaya, Alexei Navalny’s mother, and lawyer Vasily Dubkov arrive in the city of Salekhard on February 17 before being told they could not see the body.
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia Navalnaya in September 2020
Following the release of his body, his widow called Putin “Satan” for holding her husband’s body “hostage.”
The grieving widow said: ‘WWhat Putin is doing now is hate. No, it’s not even hate, it’s satanism.’
‘What will you do with his corpse? How far will you go to mock the man you murdered? She continued.
The Kremlin has denied accusations of its involvement in Navalny’s death and called the West’s reaction “hysterical.” Putin, who never said Navalny’s name in public, has not commented on the death of his staunchest critic.