Russian authorities have declined to initiate a criminal investigation into the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who passed away in an Arctic penal colony, according to his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, on Thursday.
Navalny, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in February while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges he denounced as politically motivated. Officials reported that Navalny fell ill after a walk but provided no further details about his death.
Russian authorities have claimed that Navalny’s death was due to natural causes shortly after a walk, denying any involvement in either his poisoning or death. In a video shared on social media Thursday, Yulia Navalnaya revealed that she received a letter from Russian investigators explaining her husband’s cause of death. The letter stated that Navalny succumbed to arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, as a result of “a dozen different diseases.”
Navalnaya rejected this explanation, asserting that her husband had no history of heart disease. She described the letter as “a lie” and accused officials of concealing the true circumstances of Navalny’s illness and death, noting that he was not taken to a medical unit but was instead returned to a punishment cell where he “died alone.”
According to Navalnaya, the document stated that no criminal investigation would be conducted because no offense had been committed. She criticized the lack of investigation and vowed to continue seeking answers about her husband’s death, stating, “As long as Putin is in power, there will be no investigation.”
