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Six months after the murder of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, Russia’s Investigative Committee has issued an official conclusion regarding his death.
According to the document, which was published by Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnaya earlier today, Russian authorities are claiming that Navalny's death was not criminal in nature, but is the result of a “combined disease” and occurred as a result of “arrhythmia” — an irregular heartbeat. The ruling means that the Investigative Committee has formally refused to initiate a criminal investigation into the fact of the politician's death.
“This is a resolution of the Investigative Committee for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. It is signed by the same Major Varapayev, who refused to give Alexei's body [back] to his family and attempted to blackmail his mother into agreeing to a secret funeral. [...]
I know that's not true. I know that Varapaev's ruling is a lie and they are covering up what really happened on that day. We know very well that when Alexei became ill, he was taken not to the medical center, but back to his punishment isolation [SHIZO] cell. That he died there, alone. That he was taken to the infirmary unconscious. That in the last minutes before his death he complained of a sharp pain in his stomach. Why isn't all this in the Investigative Committee’s ruling? Where is the footage from the cameras, which are everywhere in the [penal] colony, including the toilets? Where is the footage from the body cams of the prison staff who locked the dying man in the concrete box of the punishment cell?”
The contents of the Investigative Committee's letter (in Russian) can be found below:
The first sentence regarding the medical reasons for Navalny's death (highlighted above in red) reads:
“The death of Navalny A. A. has arrhythmogenic character, which manifested in a violation of the rhythm and conduction of the heart.”
Navalnaya also drew attention to the fact that Alexei's belongings have not yet been returned to his family:
“I have a very simple question — where are Alexei's belongings? In the colony they tell us that the things are in the Investigative Committee. The Investigative Committee says that they’re checking and we have to wait for 30 days. 30 days pass, and the check is extended again — wait another 30 days. And so on five times in a row. But now it's over, the document is in hand, the check is over. But they still won't give [us] his things. They do not give [us] his clothes, books, his notebooks and notepads with his writings, they do not even give him his [personal] cross. Alexei's mother, Lyudmila Ivanovna, has been demanding it since the first day.
There can be one explanation for this. The only one. He was murdered and now they're trying to cover their tracks as much as possible. So that it doesn't turn out like last time. That's why they don't show the CCTV footage, that’s why they don't give him his personal items, why they write a diagnosis that doesn't mean anything. And even the cross is not given back, also for this reason — there is little chance that it can be found there with the help of a normal examination.”
Alexei Navalny was killed in the IK-3 prison above the Arctic Circle on February 16. Only on February 24 was his body handed over to his mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, ending a week-long standoff. Two days earlier, a medical death certificate shown to Lyudmila Navalnaya claimed that the causes of her son's death were “natural.”
The day after Navalny's murder, Yulia Navalnaya released an address in which she vowed to continue her husband's cause:
“By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me, half of my heart and my soul. But I still have the other half, and it tells me that I have no right to give up. I will continue Alexei Navalny's cause. I will continue to fight for our country. And I urge you to stand with me. To share not only the grief and the endless pain that has enveloped us and will not let go. I ask you to share with me the rage. [The] rage and anger at those who dared to kill our future.”