© AP
The body of Putin critic Alexei Navalny has been found, the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reports. The body would show many injuries that may have resulted from convulsions. Meanwhile, it is claimed that Russian FSB agents visited Navalny in his cell just days before his death and disabled security cameras.
Navalny’s mother received a note on Saturday morning confirming that he died at 2.17pm on Friday, after which she decided to visit at the morgue. But upon arrival his body turned out not to be there. On Sunday, the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta wrote that Navalny’s body is in the morgue of Salekhard hospital. According to sources, no autopsy has yet been performed on the body.
“Usually, bodies of people who die in prison go straight to a medical forensic office,” says an ambulance worker from Salekhard. “For some reason, Navalny’s body was taken to the hospital.” According to the hospital official, police officers are standing guard outside the morgue. “They might as well have put up a sign that said ‘something mysterious is happening here’.”
According to the source who spoke to Novaya Gazeta, there are stories about what happened to Navalny. For example, doctors who saw his body said that he was covered in bruises that may have been caused by “convulsions.” Navalny is also said to have had a bruise on his chest, which would indicate an attempt at resuscitation after cardiac arrest. The source points out that nothing is yet known about a possible autopsy and the cause of death has still not been determined.
However, Navalny’s allies fear that Navanly’s body could be swapped and cremated, ultimately preventing an investigation and “obscuring the real cause of death.”
Meanwhile, human rights group Gulagu.net claims that Russian security agents visited the prison where Navalny was staying two days before his death. Two officers from the FSB intelligence services are said to have disconnected some security cameras and recording equipment during that visit. According to a message on the human rights organization’s website, the visit was mentioned in a report by a department of the Federal Penitentiary Service.
According to The Sunday Times, disconnecting the equipment is not the only remarkable thing about that visit. According to a timeline from Gulagu.net, the authorities announced his death, which happened in the prison camp 2,000 kilometers from Moscow, remarkably quickly.
Although the information on Gulagu.net has not always been proven to be correct, it was the first website to break the news about Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin being recruited in Russian prisons.
Navalny’s mother (l) tried to visit his body yesterday. — © REUTERS