INSIDERS claim Putin’s greatest rival Alexei Navalny was tortured to death by being tied up so tightly it cut off blood to his brain inside his Arctic hellhole jail.
A new report alleges that the original autopsy results revealed the jailed opposition leader, 47, had blood clots in the arms and muscles – before Kremlin agents covered it up.
ReutersThe report suggests Alexei Navalny could have been starved of blood in the hours before his death[/caption]
GettyRussia is yet to release an official cause of death for Putin’s arch enemy[/caption]
APWestern leaders and Russian opposition leaders accused Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder[/caption]
Insider sources told Russian human rights organisation gulagu.net that a forensic expert who examined the bruised corpse of Navalny was forced to hide his findings by Putin’s secret service.
Initial Russian reports claimed Navalny died on February 16 of a “detached blood clot” in the hellhole Siberian gulag where he had been jailed in a brutal act of political repression.
The Kremlin foe was serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges in the sadistic Polar Wolf colony- charges he always denied.
However, gulagu.net – which is headed by Russian dissident Vladimir Osechkin – claimed: “The forensic expert was pressured to conceal the discovery of blood clots….in the calf muscles and arms”.
This indicated “the formation of blood clots as a result of disruption of normal blood circulation”.
A source told the organisation that the forensic physician concluded “that four to five hours before the onset of biological death, the prisoner was tied up and his arms and legs”.
His limbs “were tightly tied just so that the blood stagnated and blood clots formed in it, which then clogged the pulmonary artery and blood vessels of the brain”, said a statement from the organisation.
No proof was offered for the allegation of torture – but Western leaders and Russian opposition figures have accused Vladimir Putin of ordering Navalny’s murder.
The forensic expert and the Investigative Committee investigators “are under intense pressure from the FSB [security service] in order to obstruct the investigation,” the report added.
They have been told to “conceal the circumstances of the commission of a particularly serious crime against Alexei Navalny – torture and contract killing”.
It is known that the Russian authorities have extended the deadline for a preliminary probe into the still unexplained death of the imprisoned Russian opposition leader.
The new date is April 20, according to Ivan Zhdanov, director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.
This means “there is still no official information from the government about the cause of death”, Zhdanov said.
Russia’s penitentiary authorities initially said the politician “felt unwell” and fainted after a walk in the prison yard.
The official narrative is that he died of “sudden death syndrome” – a vague term for different cardiac symptoms that lead to cardiac arrest and death.
East2WestExiled Russian Vladimir Osechkin runs rights organisation gulag.net[/caption]
The organisation’s new report suggests Navalny was tortured before his death
AFPNavalny staged huge anti-Kremlin protests, frequently was imprisoned and claims to have survived multiple assassination attempts before his death[/caption]
However, no specific cause of death has been revealed yet.
Navalny’s mother was shown a medical certificate stating that her son died of “natural causes”.
His body was only returned to Lyudmila after eight painful days – which sparked allegations Russia intended to cover up his cause of death.
Inside Polar Wolf, Navalny ended his days in an icy “purgatory” where temperatures nudge -30C, the winter sun never rises and inmates are ordered outside for morning roll call wearing just flimsy clothes.
Navalny’s widow Navalnaya had blasted the Russian tyrant stating: “Give us the body of my husband. You tortured him alive, and now you keep torturing him dead. You mock the remains of the dead.”
Gulag.net previously claimed that evidence suggested Navalny was killed by a “single punch to the heart” after being forced to spend hours in freezing cold.
The barbaric method was once a “hallmark of the KGB”.
Maria Pevchikh – an exiled ally of Navalny – said Navalny was poised to be freed in a prisoner swap – but Putin blocked it at the last minute and had his arch foe killed.
Ina shameless election speech last month, Putin appeared to back the theory that Navalny might have been exchanged but said: “Unfortunately, whatever happened, happened”.
Gulag.net is run by Vladimir Osechkin, who lives in exile in France after fleeing Russia following assassination attempts as he tried to expose the Kremlin’s human rights abuses.
In March, he said he narrowly avoided by assassinated and was moved out of his home after by France cops who were tipped off that a Kremlin execution squad was on their way.
AFPNavalny appeared on video link from Polar Wolf at a hearing last June[/caption]
Navalny’s efiant mum Lyudmila travelled to his remote jail to demand the release of her son’s body
Life of Alexei Navalny
PUTIN’S best known opponent Alexei Navalny, 47, has died in prison.
Here is a timeline that took the leader of the opposition from the face of freedom in Russia and the Kremlin’s biggest foe to a hellhole Siberian prison and onto an early grave.
June 4, 1976 — Navalny is born in a western part of the Moscow region
1997 — Graduates from Russia’s RUDN university, where he majored in law
2004 — Forms a movement against rampant over-development in Moscow
2008 — Gains notoriety for calling out corruption in state-run corporation
December 2011 — Participates in mass protests sparked by reports of widespread rigging of Russia’s election, and is arrested and jailed for 15 days for “defying a government official”
March 2012 – Further mass protests break out and Navalny accuses key Kremlin cronies of corruption
July 2012 — Russia’s Investigative Committee charges Navalny with embezzlement. He rejects the claims and says they are politically motivated
2013 — Navalny runs for mayor in Moscow
July 2013 — A court in Kirov convicts Navalny of embezzlement in the Kirovles case, sentencing him to five years in prison – he appeals and is allowed to continue campaign
September 2013 — Official results show Navalny finishes second in the mayor’s race
February 2014 — Navalny is placed under house arrest
December 2014 — Navalny and his brother, Oleg, are found guilty of fraud
February 2016 — The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia violated Navalny’s right to a fair trial
November 2016 — Russia’s Supreme Court overturns Navalny’s sentence
December 2016 — Navalny announces he will run in Russia’s 2018 presidential election
February 2017 — The Kirov court retries Navalny and upholds his five-year suspended sentence from 2013
April 2017 – Survives an assassination attempt he blames on Kremlin
December 2017 — Russia’s Central Electoral Commission bars him from running for president
August, 2020 – Navalny falls into a coma on a flight and his team suspects he was poisoned. German authorities confirm he was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Jan 2021 — After five months in Germany, Navalny is arrested upon his return to Russia
Feb 2021 — A Moscow court orders Navalny to serve 2 ½ years in prison
June 2021 — A Moscow court shuts down Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his extended political network
Feb 2022 — Russia invades Ukraine
March 2022 — Navalny is sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court
2023 — Over 400 Russian doctors sign an open letter to Putin, urging an end to what it calls abuse of Navalny, following reports that he was denied basic medication & suffering from slow poisoning
April, 2023 — Navalny from inside prison says he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life
Aug 2023 – A court in Russia extends Navalny’s prison sentence by 19 years
Dec 2023 – He disappears from his prison as his team fear he could be assassination. He then reappears weeks later in one of Siberia’s toughest prisons – the ‘Polar Wolf’ colony
February 16, 2024 – Navalny is found dead inside his Arctic gulag with no official cause of death given.