The death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny remains under a heavy shroud of mystery surrounding the circumstances of his demise within the notorious walls of the northwestern Siberian Polar Wolf complex.
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According to the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which is associated with the Russian opposition, Navalny's body currently lies in the morgue of the regional clinical hospital in the city of Omsk, and as of Sunday, no autopsy has been performed.
The newspaper reported that days before Navalny's death, several officers from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) visited the penal colony and disconnected some of the security cameras and listening devices present there. Those activists affiliated with the human rights organization "Gulag.Net" claim that the visit by those officers was mentioned in a report published by the local office of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service.
This report further raises doubts and suspicions regarding the official version released by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service regarding Navalny's death. According to their statement, Navalny collapsed and lost consciousness after a walk in the prison yard, with all resuscitation efforts proving futile. The announcement suggested that the likely cause of death was cardiac arrest, but this did little to convince Navalny's family, supporters and allies, who believe he was murdered within the prison walls.
The human rights organization "Gulag.Net" has published a timeline of events to illustrate how solid the suspicions surrounding Navalny's death are. It highlights that only two minutes passed between Navalny's official time of death according to the announcement - 14:17 local time - and the official statement from the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service about the death. Four minutes later, a Russian state-controlled Telegram channel claimed the cause of death was cardiac arrest, and then, just seven minutes later, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the matter.
"This rapid timing can only suggest one thing - everything was planned and coordinated in advance, minute by minute, second by second, until the announcement to the press by the Federal Penitentiary Service."
Quoting a prisoner in the penal colony, Novaya Gazeta reports that inmates were already informed about Navalny's death at 10:00 local time on Friday morning, giving authorities more than four hours to prepare their response. The prisoner also mentioned that the evening before and during the night, several unidentified vehicles arrived at the prison compound, stating, "I believe Navalny died much earlier than the announced time."