Two officers from the Russian intelligence service FSB visited the prison where Alexei Navalny was held just days before his death. The Kremlin critic, who succumbed to what has been described as “sudden death syndrome” on Friday, has sparked controversy and suspicions of foul play.
Reports suggest that the FSB officers disconnected CCTV and recording devices at the Polar Wolf Arctic prison during their visit, raising concerns about the circumstances surrounding Navalny’s death.
The revelation comes from a report on the human rights campaign group website gulagu.net, citing information from a branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service.
While the credibility of gulagu.net is not always confirmed, it is worth noting that the website was the first to expose Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin for recruiting from Russian jails.
The alleged visit by FSB officers adds a layer of complexity to the already contentious situation surrounding Navalny’s death.
Russian investigators reportedly informed Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, about the visit during her trip to the IK-3 Polar Wolf penal colony in northern Russia.
According to her account, Navalny died after returning from a walk at 2.17 pm local time on Friday. However, Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, has publicly claimed in a video that Navalnaya believes her son was murdered.
Adding to the mystery, Navalny’s allies claim that they were denied the opportunity to view the body, which remains in the custody of authorities pending a thorough investigation.
Navalny’s lawyer, who arrived in the town of Salekhard with Navalny’s mother on Saturday, was allegedly informed by the prison that the body was being held in the morgue. Strangely, a contact at the Salekhard morgue later denied the presence of Navalny’s body, leaving more questions than answers in the wake of the sudden and controversial death of one of Putin’s most prominent critics.
The alleged involvement of FSB officers and the conflicting information surrounding the handling of Navalny’s body only deepen the scepticism surrounding this tragic event.
