Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was likely killed by a single punch to the heart after being exposed to freezing conditions, according to claims made by Russian exile and human rights campaigner Vladimir Osechkin. The most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin was found dead in prison last week with severe bruising on his body.
Osechkin, the founder of the prison reform organisation Gulagu.net, believes that Navalny was killed by a special technique once taught to KGB agents. “It is an old method of the KGB’s special forces divisions,” Osechkin told UK’s The Times. “They trained their operatives to kill a man with one punch in the heart, in the centre of the body. It was a hallmark of the KGB.”
Before his death, Navalny had been forced to spend more than two and a half hours in outdoor solitary confinement where temperatures could dip to -27C, the report said. Prisoners were typically exposed to such conditions for no more than an hour due to the inherent danger, it added. Osechkin suggested that Navalny’s prolonged exposure to the cold likely weakened his body, making it vulnerable to a fatal blow.
The Russan detractor, who lives in Paris and is placed on his country’s list of wanted individuals, referenced accounts from former prisoners in Arctic regions who described incidents of inmates being killed similarly. This claim about Navalany’s death comes as Russian authorities have kept details under wraps, asserting he died of “sudden death syndrome”.
On Thursday, jailed opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza urged Russians to keep “fighting for democracy” despite Navalny’s death. His death last week sent shockwaves through Russia’s opposition, most of which is either in exile, behind bars, or dead. “I still cannot comprehend what has happened, rationally or emotionally. But if we give in to gloom and despair, that’s exactly what they want. We have no right to do that, we owe it to our fallen comrades,” Kara-Murza said.
A dual Russian and UK citizen, Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison last year. His is the longest-known sentence of all of Putin’s jailed critics. Kara-Murza was also close to Boris Nemtsov, another opposition politician who was killed near the Kremlin in 2015. And Navalny’s death last week raised fears for remaining Kremlin critics imprisoned in Russia.
(With agency inputs)
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