Federal Penitentiary Service officers could have transported Alexei Navalny’s body from CF-3 in YNAO to Salekhard before the arrival of the politician’s lawyer and relatives to the colony. This conclusion was reached by Mediazona journalists who studied the records from video surveillance cameras installed at the only crossing between the towns of Labytnangi and Salekhard.
In particular, they found that on the night of February 17, a motorcade of four cars, including a car of the Federal Penitentiary Service, drove along the road. Presumably, it was this convoy that was carrying Navalny’s body towards Salekhard.
Before that, Navalny’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh reported that the lawyer and mother of the politician flew to Salekhard on the night of February 17. They arrived at the colony at 11 am local time. They waited there for two hours, after which an employee of the colony told them that Navalny’s body was in Salekhard.
The fact that the politician’s body was taken to the morgue of the Salekhard district hospital was earlier reported by a source of Novaya Gazeta – Europe. According to him, an autopsy has not yet been conducted. Moreover, the body may be sent to Moscow, as an autopsy in Salekhard may demonstrate that the Federal Penitentiary Service has something to hide, the source said.
After Navalny’s death, representatives of the central offices of the IC and FPS arrived in Salekhard, also claimed the source of Novaya Gazeta – Europe. According to him, the main question for the staff of the Yamalo-Nenets Directorate now is who “will be appointed as an extreme person”. So far, there are two candidates: Colonel Vadim Kalinin, head of CF-3, and Igor Rakitin, head of the Yamalo-Nenets Penitentiary Department.
Alexei Navalny died in the penal colony on February 16, reported the Department of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. They said that after a walk the politician “felt bad, almost immediately losing consciousness”, “resuscitation measures” did not yield positive results, “doctors of emergency medical aid stated death”.
The document, which the staff of CF-3 handed over to Navalny’s mother, states that death occurred on February 16 at 14:17 local time. However, one of the prisoners told Novaya Gazeta – Europe that the facility knew about the death four hours earlier.
At the same time, Navalny’s relatives and associates pointed out that a few days before his death he was feeling well. This, in particular, was stated by his mother, who saw her son on a visit to the colony on February 12, noting that he was “healthy and cheerful”. Lawyer Leonid Solovev met with Navalny on February 14 and confirmed that his client “everything was fine” then.
On the eve of his death, February 15, Navalny took part in a session of the Vladimir Regional Court via video link. It noted that “he felt normal, did not complain, spoke actively, and presented arguments in defense of his position”.
