rki.news
MOSCOW, Feb. 16 – The mother of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says confirmation that her son died from poisoning validates her belief that he was murdered.
On Saturday, the UK and European allies issued a statement saying Navalny, who died in 2024, was killed using a poison derived from a dart frog toxin, adding that “only the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin.”
“This confirms what we knew from the very beginning,” Lyudmila Navalnaya said while visiting her son’s grave in Moscow on Monday, marking the second anniversary of his death. “We knew that our son did not simply die in prison, he was murdered.”
The Kremlin firmly rejected the allegations. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov called them “biased and unfounded,” saying Russia resolutely disagrees with the accusations.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia, also marked the anniversary, writing on social media: “We have achieved truth and we will achieve justice one day too.” She had previously said analysis of smuggled biological samples in foreign laboratories showed her husband was “murdered,” and challenged the facilities to publish their results.
Dozens of Muscovites and foreign diplomats visited Borisovskoye cemetery, leaving flowers and notes, including one reading: “Alexei, we remember you every day.”
Navalny, 47 at the time of his death, had survived a suspected Novichok poisoning in 2020, returned to Russia in 2021, and was subsequently imprisoned. His death in a Siberian penal colony, along with the crackdown on his supporters, has intensified international scrutiny and highlighted ongoing repression of dissent in Russia.