A midnight motorcade that is suspected to have taken Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s corpse out of his Arctic prison has been caught on video – as his family were refused access to his body for the third day.
A prison van believed to be carrying the corpse was seen in a convoy of prison vehicles and two highway patrol police cars.
One car was unmarked – possibly an FSB security service escort.
The convoy set off from the strict regime colony where Navalny was imprisoned in a temperature of minus 30C on the day of his death.
Navalny, 47, is widely believed among his supporters and Western experts to have been murdered by Vladimir Putin’s regime ahead of next month’s Russian presidential election.
Navalny’s mother Lyudmila, 69, and lawyer arrived at the jail on Saturday morning seeking to collect the body, but were refused by staff.
The late dissident’s team this morning announced Lyudmila had been refused access to her son’s body yet again, three days after he is said to have died, because the investigation into his death ‘has been extended’.
‘It is not known how long it will continue. The cause of death is still ‘undetermined’. They’re lying, playing for time and do not even hide it,’ the spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said on X.
Meanwhile, Ivan Zhdanov, head of Navalny’s anti-corruption campaign, branded the Russian prison authorities ‘unprincipled liars and lackeys’ of Vladimir Putin, accusing them of playing for time to hide evidence of Navalny’s murder.
This photo taken from video released by Russian Federal Penitentiary Service shows Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on February 15, 2024. Shortly after Navalny’s death was reported on Friday Feb. 16, 2024
Russian media have obtained footage of a midnight convoy of cars, including vehicles from the Federal Penitentiary Service, reportedly rushing the body of the late politician Alexei Navalny from the jail where he was pronounced dead to the regional capital of Salekhard in the early hours of February 17, 2024
This prison van is believed to have ferried Navalny’s corpse out of the prison
The late dissident’s team this morning announced Lyudmila had been refused access to her son’s body yet again, three days after he is said to have died
Lyudmila Navalnaya (C), mother of Alexei Navalny, walks accompanied by lawyers after visiting the Investigative Committee in Salekhard, Yamalo-Nenets region, Russia, 19 February 2024
The late dissident’s team this morning announced Lyudmila had been refused access to her son’s body yet again, three days after he is said to have died
A view shows the prosecutor’s office of the Yamal-Nenets Region in the course of the case investigation of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death, in the city of Salekhard, Russia, February 19, 2024
‘Now the relatives are being told that the deadline for the preliminary check by the Investigative Committee has been extended,’ said Zhdanov, 35.
‘They blatantly lie that everything will be decided in an hour – ”we are interested in doing everything as soon as possible”.
‘Unprincipled liars and lackeys. It’s clear what they’re doing now – cleaning up traces of their crime.
‘They are waiting for the wave of hatred and rage towards them [over Navalny’s death] to calm down,’ Zhdanov concluded.
In the security footage of the midnight motorcade, the Soviet-designed Federal Penitentiary Service van believed to be carrying Navalny is clearly seen flanked by an unmarked car and several police vehicles.
The drive from the Polar Wolf jail in Kharp went first to Labytnangi, and then crossed the frozen Ob, the world’s seventh longest river, to Salekhard, according to independent news outlet Mediazona which obtained the footage of the macabre journey.
The journey across the thick ice may have ended at a hospital morgue, where paramedics revealed Navalny’s body was covered in bruises, according to another news outlet, Novaya Gazeta Europe.
But prison staff told Lyudmila and the lawyer that the body was at a different morgue.
‘Navalny’s mother and lawyer, who came to the colony in Kharp, were sent to the Salekhard [district] morgue,’ said Mediazona.
‘But there, they were told that they did not have the body of a politician.’
Today Navalny’s mother and lawyers were barred from a morgue in Salekhard as they sought to find his missing body.
‘Early in the morning, Alexei’s mother and lawyers arrived at the morgue,’ said Navalny’s press spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh.
‘They are not allowed inside.
‘One of the lawyers was literally pushed out. When asked whether Alexei’s body was there, the employees did not answer.’
van Zhdanov, head of Navalny’s anti-corruption campaign, branded the Russian prison authorities ‘unprincipled liars and lackeys’ of Vladimir Putin
The late dissident’s team this morning announced Lyudmila had been refused access to her son’s body yet again, three days after he is said to have died, because the investigation into his death ‘has been extended’
Today Navalny’s mother and lawyers were barred from a morgue in Salekhard as they sought to find his missing body
Mediazona said the surveillance camera footage they obtained ‘confirms that Navalny’s body was deliberately hidden from his family.
‘Together with thousands of Russians, the editors of Mediazona demand that the politician’s body be returned to his family.’
The family has now been told checks are still underway to establish the cause of death, even though they had said he died of a ‘blood clot’ or ‘sudden death syndrome’.
The next shock for the family was the bruising claim.
The wounds were consistent with a ‘seizure’, according to Novaya Gazeta Europe.
A paramedic told how his ambulance colleagues found bruises on Navalny’s body, which was under police guard in the morgue at Salekhard clinical hospital.
‘Such damage occurs from convulsions,’ said the paramedic.
‘The person is convulsing, they are trying to restrain him, but the convulsions can be very strong, and that’s why bruises appear.’
Flowers and a photo of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny are placed near the Russian consulate in Frankfurt, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024
People light candles in tribute to Alexiei Navalny in front of the Russian Consulate General in Krakow, Poland on February 18, 2024
People lay flowers and candles at a memorial on February 18, 2024 in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin, following the death of the Kremlin’s most prominent critic Alexei Navalny
In this photo provide by protest group Pussy Riot on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024, Lyubov Sobol, exiled ally of opposition leader Alexei Navalny attends a demonstration in front of the Russian Embassy, in relation to the death of Russian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in Berlin
FILE – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, center, addresses supporters and journalists after arriving from Kirov at a railway station in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, July 20, 2013
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny stands inside a glass cell during a court hearing at the Babushkinsky district court in Moscow on February 20, 2021
There were also signs that jail medics had tried to resuscitate Navalny, because there were signs of ‘chest compressions’.
‘That is, they still tried to resuscitate him, and he died, most likely, from cardiac arrest. But why this stop happened, no one is saying anything yet.’
There is no current confirmation of the whereabouts of his body
The timing of Navalny’s death – given as 14:17 local time on Friday – is also seen as suspicious.
Evidence from an inmate suggests he died during the previous night.
One theory is that the body or biomaterial may be taken to Moscow for a post-mortem.
Over 46,000 people have signed a petition – started by Novaya Gazeta Europe – demanding Navalny’s body is given to his family.
Funerals are normally held on the third day after death but there is no sign the body will be released, which might allow the Navalny team to conduct their own analysis of the cause of death.
They are all too aware that in 2020 an attempt was made by Putin’s FSB secret service to assassinate Navalny by poisoning with a nerve agent.
