Alexei Navalny’s Widow Says Lab Tests Confirm He Was Poisoned

Last Updated:September 17, 2025, 18:59 IST

Yulia Navalnaya says two foreign labs confirmed Alexei Navalny was poisoned and surveillance footage has vanished despite him being under near-constant camera monitoring in jail

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny

Widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya on Wednesday said that two foreign laboratories have confirmed her husband was poisoned.

Navalny — Putin’s main opponent — was declared an “extremist” by Russian authorities, a ruling that remains in force despite his death in an Arctic penal colony on February 16, 2024.

While Navalny’s allies have repeatedly accused the Kremlin of killing him, Russian officials have said that he died of a mixture of diseases, including heart arrhythmia triggered by hypertension.

In a video posted on X, Navalnaya, who lives abroad, said that the biological samples secretly smuggled out of Russia in 2024 were examined by two laboratories.

“We managed to transfer Alexei’s biological materials abroad. Laboratories in two different countries conducted examinations. These laboratories, independently of each other, concluded that Alexei was poisoned. These results are of public importance and must be published. We all deserve to know the truth,” she said in the caption.

Navalnaya also said the surveillance footage from the final day of her husband’s life had vanished, despite the opposition leader being under near-constant camera monitoring throughout his imprisonment, The Guardian reported. She, however, did not specify what poison the laboratories had found.

However, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he was unaware of Navalnaya’s claims.

Meanwhile, Navalny’s allies have also released previously unseen photographs that they claimed were taken inside the prison cell after his death. According to The Guardian, the images show a cramped cell with what appears to be vomit and blood on the floor, next to a notebook and an Oxford dictionary.

Last year, The Insider also flagged the possibility that Navalny was poisoned, citing medical records that were allegedly altered to support Russia’s claim that he died of cardiac problems.

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