Universally severed thrombus

Navalny’s death in a colony with the “darkest reputation” was covered up with an unprovable diagnosis

A Russian oppositionist died in correctional colony (IK) No. 3 in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug) Alexey Navalny. According to the Federal Penitentiary Service, the politician died during a walk; doctors were unable to rehabilitate him. According to human rights activists, Penal Colony No. 3 has a very dark reputation.

A year ago, in January 2023, more than 300 Russian doctors signed an open letter to Vladimir Putin (*international criminal), expressing their concern about the health of Alexei Navalny due to his constant stay in a punishment cell. “The conditions of detention and the appearance of Alexei Navalny cause us great concern for his life and health. The refusal of the FSIN representatives to provide Alexey with the necessary medications creates a direct threat to his life <…>. From a medical point of view, it is obvious that Alexey does not receive sufficient medical care, and keeping him in a punishment cell is absolutely contraindicated in his condition,” the letter said.

“All convicts unanimously say that Kharp is almost the worst place to serve their sentence,” a source from the legal community told Kommersant-Ural. According to him, this is a “red” colony. “No matter what kind of authority in the criminal world comes there, they will break him if they want. As the colony wants, so he will live. For the most part, repeat offenders are kept there for particularly serious crimes,” he noted.

The FSIN announced the death of Navalny on Friday afternoon, February 16. “Navalny A.A. after the walk I felt unwell, almost immediately losing consciousness,” the department said.

The FSIN assured that the colony’s doctors arrived at Navalny’s place immediately and also called an ambulance. “The doctors who arrived at the scene continued the resuscitation measures that were already being provided by the colony’s doctors. And they spent more than half an hour. However, the patient died,” a local hospital told Interfax.

The source of the propaganda RT claims that Navalny allegedly lost a blood clot. The Kremlin, commenting on Navalny’s death, said that it did not have such information.

The publication SOTAvion (in the register of “foreign agents”) published a video recorded the day before with Navalny communicating with the Kovrovsky court in the Vladimir region. In it, Navalny looks healthy.

Not everyone in the medical and human rights community believed RT’s version of an allegedly broken blood clot. Thus, a former employee of the Federal Penitentiary Service and member of the Public Monitoring Committee Anna Karetnikova said blood clot problems are the “universal explanation” used by prison doctors for inmate deaths.

According to her, the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism is difficult to prove and therefore it is often used – because “who will understand.” “Did the patient die from kidney or liver problems? Who said that medical assistance was not provided? Come on, they did. Blood clot, sudden death,” Karetnikova wrote.

“There is nothing to comment on here. “Thrombus” is the standard wording among ambulance workers. It is difficult to make such a diagnosis even after an autopsy. What is actually there is unknown. You can write anything you want,” an anesthesiologist from Israel told the BBC Mikhail Fremderman.

Reanimatologist Alexander Polupanwho treated Navalny after his poisoning in 2020, also doubts the blood clot theory.

“It is impossible to confirm that Navalny’s blood clot broke off and it was a thromboembolism, because no intravital manipulations were carried out to determine this disease (this is not reported) and an autopsy was not performed. And the way they describe that he felt unwell, an ambulance arrived, and they conclude that a blood clot came off – such a conclusion can only be made based on the results of the autopsy,” he explained.

Journalist Dmitry Muratov, reacting to the news of Navalny’s death, said that what happened was “a direct consequence of his 27th term in a punishment cell.” “Alexey Navalny was subjected to torment and torture for three years. As Navalny’s doctor told me: the body cannot withstand this,” Muratov said.

The human rights activist agreed with this Eva Merkacheva – in a comment to Msk1, she also connected Navalny’s death with his stay in the punishment cell.

“The punishment cell is very difficult living conditions <...> A person there most often freezes, most often starves, in fact. That is why strict requirements have been established that it cannot be prescribed for more than a certain number of days. But there were no restrictions on the number of premises in the punishment cell. That is, one term ends, a person is placed in a detachment, he is immediately called to a new commission, they say that he has a new violation, and on the same day he is sent back to the punishment cell. This is monstrous, you know?” – said Merkacheva. Her comment was eventually deleted by Msk1, the BBC Russian Service noted.

In December 2023, Navalny disappeared from a colony in the Vladimir region. He was not included in court hearings via video link several times, and his lawyers reported that he was no longer in IK-6. For about 20 days there was no information about his whereabouts, after which it was possible to establish that Navalny was transferred to IK-4 in the village of Kharp on Yamal.

“And they were transported with such precautions and along such a strange route (Vladimir – Moscow – Chelyabinsk – Yekaterinburg – Kirov – Vorkuta – Kharp) that I did not expect that anyone would find me here until mid-January,” Navalny said then.

According to him, in the new colony he was taken for walks to the next cell, where there was snow on the floor, and that only the fence was visible outside the cell window. “I look outside the window, where first it’s night, then evening, then night again,” Navalny wrote.

In the new colony on Yamal he was also sent to a punishment cell four times. Twice for introducing himself “incorrectly.” According to the IK staff, Navalny “does not respond to educational work, does not draw proper conclusions for himself,” his associates reported.