Russian security officers visited Alexei Navalny’s prison just a few days before he died, it’s been claimed, amid allegations the Kremlin critic was murdered.
Two days before he died from ‘sudden death syndrome’ on Friday, two officers from Russian intelligence service FSB, are alleged to have disconnected some of the CCTV and recording devices at the Polar Wolf Arctic prison.
According to a report on the human rights campaign group website gulagu.net, the visit was mentioned in a report by a branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service.
Although the website’s information is not always proven to be correct, it was the first to expose Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin for recruiting from Russian jails.
Russian investigators are alleged to have told the opposition leader’s mother as she visited the brutal IK-3 Polar Wolf penal colony where he was being held this morning.
Lyudmila Navalnaya was seen today travelling to the colony in northern Russia, where she was told her son died after returning from a walk at 14:17 local time on Friday.
His press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, claimed in a video that Navalnaya had been murdered.
Ms Yarmysh said: ‘The whole world knows that the president of Russia personally gave this order [for his murder] just as it knows that Alexei was never afraid of him, never stayed silent, and that he never stopped acting. We must not give up. This is what Alexei urged us to do,’ The Times reported.
Russian security officers visited Alexei Navalny ‘s prison just a few days before he died, it’s been claimed, amid claims the Kremlin critic was murdered
Navalny’s widow condemned Putin’s regime in a conference on Friday, swearing he will ‘bear responsibility’ for what happened
Yulia Navalnaya, wife of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny
Navalnaya and his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, (pictured) have two children together
Lyudmila Navalnaya, the mother of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and lawyer Vasily Dubkov pictured today
Navalny’s allies say they were denied the opportunity to see the body, which would remain with the authorities until an investigation was complete.
Navalny’s lawyer, who arrived in the town of Salekhard with Navalny’s mother on Saturday, was allegedly told by the prison that the body was being held in the morgue.
A contact at the Salekhard morgue later denied the body was there – leaving yet more question marks around the shock death of one of Putin’s most fierce critics.
The shock death has sparked a wave of vigils and protests across Russia, prompting police to crack down with force and make hundreds of arrests since Friday.
‘It’s obvious that the killers want to cover their tracks and are therefore not handing over Alexei’s body, hiding it even from his mother,’ his team said in a post on Telegram.
Navalnaya and his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, have two children together, Daria, 23, and Zakhar, 15.
She condemned Putin’s regime in a conference on Friday, swearing he will ‘bear responsibility’ for what happened.
In London, the Foreign Office summoned diplomats at the Russian Embassy and called for Mr Navalny’s death to be ‘investigated fully and transparently’ as Lord David Cameron warned there will be ‘consequences’ for the death.
The G7 demanded Russia ‘stop its unacceptable persecution of political dissent, as well as systematic repression of freedom of expression and unduly limitation of civil rights,’ in the statement today.
Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is dead, the prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region where he had been serving his sentence said
The shock death of Putin’s most fierce critic has sparked a wave of vigils and protests across Russia, prompting police to crack down with force and make hundreds of arrests since Friday.
It comes as Ukraine’s troops pull out of Avdiivka, a small industrial city in the eastern Donbas region which has been a symbol of Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression since 2014.
For Vladimir Putin, whose re-election as Russian president in March is all but assured with the opposition muzzled or exiled, Avdiivka is a ‘significant victory’, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War.
Alexei Navalny, the fiercest foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was reported to have died in prison on Friday, according to Russia’s prison agency.
The Federal Prison Service said in a statement that Navalny, 47, felt unwell after a walk and ‘almost immediately lost consciousness’. Paramedics reportedly came to try to rehabilitate him without success.
Navalny, who was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of ‘extremism’, had only recently been moved from his former prison in the Vladimir region of central Russia to a grisly ‘special regime’ penal colony above the Arctic Circle.
His allies, a brave minority in Russia fighting corruption, said at the time they feared for his life after he ‘disappeared’ in December to travel to the remote region notorious for its long and severe winters – just months before the closely-watched Russian presidential elections next month.
Navalny was last seen via video link during a court hearing on Thursday.
Tributes are laid as people demonstrate outside the Russian embassy, in Denmark
Police officers detain a woman during a gathering in memory of Navalny in Moscow
People light candles during a vigil for the critic in Germany
Dressed in black prison uniform, he appeared to be in good spirits – his trademark humour back on show.
‘Your Honour, I will send you my personal account number so that you can use your huge salary as a federal judge to ”warm up” my personal account, because I am running out of money,’ he said.
State media reported he raised no health complaints during the session.
His mother said she had seen her son in the prison colony on Monday. At the time, she said: ‘He was alive, healthy, cheerful.’
One of Navalny’s lawyers, Leonid Solovyov, told the independent Novaya Gazeta paper that the Kremlin critic was ‘normal’ when a lawyer saw him on Wednesday.
But the Federal Prison Service announced his death in a statement yesterday, saying that Navalny felt unwell after a walk and lost consciousness. An ambulance arrived to try to save him, to no avail.
The sudden death of the former Anti-Corruption Foundation leader has provoked a strong response from supporters as far afield as Japan, Poland, Finland, Mumbai and San Francisco.
People leave flowers and candles as they gather for a demonstration in Amsterdam
A woman lays a flower in front of the Russian Embassy in Denmark
In several Russian cities, authorities have clamped down on protests and vigils, pictured dragging supporters away from makeshift memorials. Masked police were seen taking away mourners at a monument for victims of Soviet repression in Moscow.
The OVD-Info protest-monitoring group said more than 270 people had been arrested across Russia at meetings and memorials to Navalny since his death was announced.
Hundreds of flowers and dozens of candles could be seen at the monument for victims of Soviet repression in Moscow and more flowers could be seen left in the snow on nearby pavements.
‘Alexei Navalny’s death is the worst thing that could happen to Russia,’ read a note left among the flowers and Navalny photos by the monument.
Authorities in the Russian capital said Friday they were aware of calls online ‘to take part in a mass rally in the centre of Moscow’ and warned people against attending.
‘We will not forget, we will not forgive. Those responsible will be punished!’ the note said.
Police officers were also seen standing near a similar monument to political prisoners in St. Petersburg today.
Protests are illegal in Russia under strict anti-dissent laws, and authorities have clamped down particularly harshly on rallies in support of Navalny.
Earlier today, Volodymyr Zelensky issued a chilling warning to critics of Putin’s regime at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
‘Putin kills whoever he wants,’ the Ukrainian President said this morning. ‘Be it an opposition leader or anyone else who appears as a target to him. He maintains power through corruption and violence.’
‘Putin has murdered another opposition leader,’ Zelensky said outright. The Kremlin has denied involvement in Navalny’s death.
Zelensky spoke on the need to repel Putin’s advances east and depose him – as Russia prepares for its closely-watched presidential elections next month.
He warned Saturday that his country’s battle to repel Russian troops was being held back by a lack of long-range weapons and artillery shells.