Investigators reject probe into Navalny’s death, saying he died of ‘combination of illnesses’

Russian investigators have refused to open a criminal case into the death of opposition leader Alexey Navalny in an Arctic prison in February, insisting that he died of “arrhythmia”, brought on by a “combination of illnesses”, the late politician’s widow Yulia Navalnaya said on Thursday.

Navalnaya held up what she called “the first and only official document” provided to her by the Investigative Committee in the Arctic Yamalo-Nenets autonomous district, where Navalny died, adding that despite it being dated 26 July, she only received it last week. 

The document, signed by Alexander Varapayev, the same officer who refused to hand over Navalny’s body to his mother for several days after his death and reportedly “blackmailed her into holding a secret burial”, said that Navalny’s death “wasn’t criminal in nature”, but rather the result of a “combination of illnesses”.

The document listed a plethora of conditions that Navalny was apparently suffering from that ranged from hypertension to herpes, but ultimately concluded that Navalny had died of “arrhythmia”.

Navalnaya said that she had shared the diagnosis with several doctors, who came to the same conclusion: “There was no clot, no signs of a heart attack or a stroke. So they wrote arrhythmia just to write something,” Navalnaya said, calling the diagnosis “an act of mockery” and “a pathetic attempt” to cover up her husband’s murder.

According to the document, which Navalnaya published in full, Navalny left his punishment cell at 12:10pm on 16 February for a walk, during which he “felt a sharp decline in health” and was then moved to a medical unit, where he was declared dead at 2:17pm following “resuscitation measures” that “did not have a positive effect”.

“We know very well that when Alexey started to feel unwell, he wasn’t taken to a medical unit, but was instead brought back to his punishment cell, where he died alone,” Navalnaya said, adding that her husband had been “taken to a medical unit after he lost consciousness, and in his final moments, he complained of “severe abdominal pain”.

“Why is none of it mentioned in your report? Where is the footage from the cameras that are installed everywhere in the prison, including the toilets? Where is the footage from the body cameras of the prison staff who locked a dying man in a concrete cell?” Navalnaya asked, adding that the same staff had also refused to hand over Navalny’s belongings to his mother.

“There is only one explanation for this. He was murdered, and now they’re trying to cover their tracks. They don’t want a repeat of last time,” Navalnaya concluded, referring to an unsuccessful attempt on Navalny’s life in August 2020 that was later revealed by Navalny himself to have been carried out by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

Alexey Navalny’s former physician, Alexander Polupan, described the Investigative Committee’s diagnosis as “bullshit” to independent media outlet Agentstvo on Thursday. “Either they didn’t find anything and tried to shoehorn a diagnosis, or they found something but decided to cover it up,” Polupan said.