‘Vladimir Putin is responsible for the murder of my husband’ Navalny’s team obtained evidence he was poisoned in Arctic prison, widow says

After Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny died in a prison in Kharp, in Russia’s Far North, on February 16, 2024, his team managed to secure samples of his biological material and send them abroad to laboratories in two Western countries. Tests confirmed that Navalny had been poisoned, his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, announced on Wednesday.

“What happens next? I don’t know. A Russian citizen was killed on Russian soil, and all of the evidence is there. Western countries have no legal grounds to open or pursue a criminal case,” she said.

Navalny’s team also obtained testimony from five employees of the Kharp prison describing what happened to the opposition leader in the final days of his life. Yulia Navalnaya gave a detailed account of their statements.

After Navalny was transferred to Kharp — his family learned of his whereabouts at the end of December 2024 — he complained of pain in his right leg. According to prison staff, on February 3, 2024, he was taken to the medical unit, where his temperature and blood pressure were checked, before being escorted back to his cell. On February 14, he was placed in a punishment cell.

On the morning of his death, three officers from the prison’s high-security unit (known as EPKT, a block made up of single-cell rooms) said he again complained of leg pain. However, the colony’s chief medical officer, Alexey Lisyuk, claims that Navalny had made no health complaints.

Lunch was distributed to the cells at 11:30 a.m. and cleared away at noon. At 12:10 p.m., Navalny was taken from his cell for a walk in a small exercise yard — essentially another cell without a roof.

During the walk, according to one prison security officer’s testimony, Navalny knocked on the door and said he felt unwell. When guards opened it, he was squatting on the ground. He was led back to his cell, where he lay down on the floor, drew his knees to his chest, and groaned in pain, saying he felt burning in his chest and stomach. Then he began vomiting. Staff testified that Navalny suffered convulsions, struggled to breathe, and coughed, but he was left alone in the locked cell.

At 1:10 p.m., Lisyuk, the medical officer, returned from lunch. His testimony also noted that Navalny experienced facial and hand convulsions. Navalny was pulled out of his cell. As he was carried down the corridor, he was wheezing; by the time he was laid on a cot in the medical unit, he was unconscious. At 1:25, an ambulance was called. It arrived ten minutes later and paramedics tried to resuscitate him, but failed. At 2:17 p.m., an electrocardiogram showed no cardiac activity. Resuscitation efforts were stopped at 2:23. The ambulance crew’s preliminary diagnosis read: “Seizure syndrome. Sudden death syndrome.”

Yulia Navalnaya pointed out that prison staff, in their testimony, described convulsions that could indicate her husband had been poisoned. The forensic report makes no mention of convulsions, but it does note bruises on Navalny’s elbows and knees, sustained 30 to 40 minutes before his death, as well as bleeding at the crown of his head. “Alexey was convulsing and struck the floor — that’s most likely where those marks came from,” Yulia said.

Navalny’s team also highlighted another detail: video footage from the final day of his life “seems not to exist,” even though he had been under constant surveillance throughout his imprisonment. On a map of the prison that Yulia Navalnaya showed, 63 cameras are marked in the block where her husband was held. “And there is no footage from any of them,” she said. She believes those recordings may contain evidence that contradicts the official version of his death.