Alexei Navalny died of a blood clot indicating natural causes as the reason, according a top Ukrainian spy chief.
The 47-year-old’s mysterious death in a Siberian penal colony has led to global condemnation of the Kremlin, with many accusing Vladimir Putin of being in some way responsible.
Russia claimed Navalny died from “sudden death syndrome” while on a walk in the subzero environment of Polar Wolf – a high security jail 1,200 miles north-east of Moscow.
Senior officials from around the world pointed the blame at Putin, such as EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell who said Navalny had been “slowly murdered in a Russian jail by Putin’s regime”.
But now Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence service, has identified a blood clot as the cause.
READ MORE: Alexei Navalny’s ‘tortured’ body returned to his mother 9 days after his death
Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv, he said: “I may disappoint you, but what we know is that he really died from a blood clot.
“And this is more or less confirmed.
“This was not taken from the Internet, but, unfortunately, a natural [death].”
If a blood clot is determined to be the reason for his death, it would align with a medical certificate handed to Navalny’s family by Russian authorities which said he died of natural causes.
Anti-corruption campaigner Navalny was serving a 19-year sentence when he was found dead in the penal colony on February 16.
Last week, widow Yulia Navalnaya accusing Putin of “torturing” him.
She said in a video message: “You tortured him alive, and now you keep torturing him dead. You mock the remains of the dead.”
The body has now been returned to family members, as confirmed on Telegram by Ivan Zhdanov, director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.
Zhdanov thanked “everyone” who urged Russian authorities to return Navalny’s body.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected allegations that Putin was involved in Navalny’s death, calling them “absolutely unfounded, insolent accusations about the head of the Russian state.”
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