Alexei Navalny’s widow says lab studies present her husband was poisoned

The widow of Alexei Navalny mentioned on Wednesday (September 17, 2025) that two impartial labs have discovered that her husband was poisoned shortly earlier than his dying in a Russian jail.

Navalny, who crusaded in opposition to official corruption and staged huge anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died within the Arctic penal colony in February 2024. He was serving a 19-year sentence that he believed to be politically motivated.

Authorities mentioned that the politician grew to become unwell after a stroll however have in any other case given few particulars on his dying. He was 47.

In a video launched on Wednesday, Yulia Navalnaya mentioned that organic samples from Navalny’s physique had been taken out of Russia and examined at two laboratories overseas.

She mentioned that each laboratories concluded that Navalny had been poisoned, however had not launched their findings attributable to “political issues.” She didn’t present proof or elaborate on what the alleged poison was.

“These labs in two totally different nations reached the identical conclusion: Alexei was killed. More particularly, he was poisoned,” Ms. Navalnaya mentioned within the video, which was posted on social media. In the clip, she questioned the dearth of video footage from the jail and confirmed pictures presupposed to be of Navalny’s cell on the day of his dying displaying vomit on the ground. She didn’t present direct proof that Navalny had been poisoned or that it had been carried out by jail authorities.

“I demand that the laboratories that carried out the analysis publish their outcomes,” she said. “Stop appeasing Putin for some increased issues.’ You can not placate him. While you keep silent, he doesn’t cease,” Ms. Navalnaya mentioned.

Ms. Navalnaya has repeatedly blamed Putin for Navalny’s dying, one thing Russian officers have vehemently denied.

In a press convention on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov mentioned he was not conscious of Ms. Navalnaya’s assertion and mentioned that he couldn’t remark.

Ms. Navalnaya mentioned in August 2024 that she was instructed by Russian investigators that Navalny died from a mix of “a dozen totally different illnesses” and that he lastly succumbed to arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat.

Ms. Navalnaya disputed Russian officers’ model of occasions and mentioned her husband exhibited no situations of coronary heart illness whereas alive.

Navalny beforehand suffered from one other poisoning in 2020, when the opposition chief fell sick on an inner flight in Russia. He was flown to Berlin whereas nonetheless in a coma for therapy two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and assessments by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was uncovered to the Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.

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