His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, says laboratory tests of samples taken from Russian opposition leader Alexy Navalnay show that he was poisoned when he was imprisoned in a Siberian prison.
According to Navalnaya, the tests were conducted independently by two separate foreign research institutes, both of which reached the same conclusion.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a press conference Wednesday morning that he was “unaware” of the claim.
Navalny, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, passed away in February 2024 at the age of 47 in a prison north of the Arctic. According to a Russian prison, he felt sick and unconscious while walking in prison.
Navalny’s widow has long been Putin responsible for his death. Moscow denied involvement.
His death has sparked protests around the world, gathering outside of Russian embassies in European capitals, including Berlin and Paris, waving banners reading “Putin is a murderer” and “President Putin.”
“A year and a half ago I promised to do everything to investigate Alexei’s murder,” Nabarnaya said in a video uploaded to X on Wednesday.
“We keep that promise.”
She said the Navalny murder suspect would “work carefully” and erase the traces, but a biological sample of the bodies of imprisoned opposition parties was obtained and sent abroad.
“The labs in at least two countries independently of each other, and these labs came to the same conclusion in two different countries. Alexy was killed – more specifically, he was poisoned.”
She did not specify which poison the lab found and gave little other details. However, she called on the facility to publish the results.
“Alexy was my husband. He was my friend. He was a symbol of hope for our country. Putin killed that hope,” she said.
She also shared an image that she claimed to show Navalny’s cells.
Asked by CNN, Navalny’s team said they have not yet received a full report from the labs involved, saying that part of the reason for publishing the allegations is to put pressure on the facility to release its findings. They gave little other details and did not confirm which countries were involved in the test.
In 2021, Navalny returned to Russia from Germany and was treated after being poisoned with Novichok, a neurologic agent from the Soviet era. Upon arrival, he was quickly arrested on charges dismissed as politically motivated.
Since then, Navalny has been incarcerated and has seen years of concern about his welfare after being transported to a prison known as the “Polar Wolf.” He spent his final weeks in the Siberian prison, where he said he slept under the newspaper for warmth.
His family was denied access to his body for several days after his death, promoting suspicions of foul play among his followers.
