Tests show Alexei Navalny was poisoned before death in Russian prison, widow claims

Navalny was president Vladimir Putin’s fiercest enemy, waging a relentless campaign against official corruption in Russia and staging massive anti-Kremlin protests.

The politician and activist, who was recognised by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, died in one of Russia’s toughest penal colonies nicknamed ‘Polar Wolf’ in February 2024.

The colony is located in the Yamalo-Nenets region in the Arctic Circle where temperatures reach -20C.

He was serving a 19-year sentence on charges that he believed to be politically motivated, including running an extremist group.

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Authorities said that the politician leading the opposition to Putin died after becoming ill after a walk, but have otherwise given few details on his death. He was 47. Western leaders have accused the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin of orchestrating Navalny's killing.

In a video released on Wednesday, his widow Yulia Navalnaya said that biological samples from her husband's body had been taken out of Russia and tested at two laboratories abroad.

She said that both laboratories concluded Navalny had been poisoned but had not released their findings due to "political considerations". She did not elaborate on what the alleged poison was.

"These labs in two different countries reached the same conclusion: Alexei was killed. More specifically, he was poisoned," Ms Navalnaya said in the video, which was posted on social media.

"I demand that the laboratories that conducted the research publish their results," she said. "Stop appeasing Putin for some higher 'considerations'. You cannot placate him. While you stay silent, he does not stop."

Ms Navalnaya has repeatedly blamed Putin for her late husband’s death, something which Russian officials have denied. The Kremlin has not yet commented on Ms Navalnaya's latest statement.

She said in August 2024 that she was told by Russian investigators that Navalny died from a combination of "a dozen different diseases" and that he finally succumbed to arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat.

Ms Navalnaya disputed Russian officials' version of events and said her husband exhibited no instances of heart disease while alive.

Navalny previously suffered from another poisoning in 2020, when the opposition leader fell sick on an internal flight in Russia. He was flown to Berlin while still in a coma for treatment two days later.

Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to the Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.

Russian authorities have denied any involvement in the incident, a claim that Navalny challenged as false.