Ultimately, Death

"Russia saw [Russian opposition leader Alexei] Navalny as a threat."

"By using this form of poison the Russian state demonstrated the despicable tools it has at its disposal and the overwhelming fear it has of political opposition."

"[The attack] must have been authorized at the highest level, by President Putin."

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper

 

[I was] certain from the first day [that Alexei was poisoned], but now there is proof."

"Putin killed Alexei with chemical weapons."

"[Putin is] a murderer [who must be held accountable]."

Yulia Navalnaya, Alexei Navalny's wife 

 

"No one but Putin's henchmen will be able to say in detail what happened on February 16, 2024, in the Russian penal colony."

"But it is clear that Russian authorities had the possibility, the motive and the means to administer the poison to Navalny."

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul

The longtime Kremlin critic died in prison following charges he decried as politically motivated  Image: GINTS IVUSKANS/AFP/Getty Images

 

Alexander Litvinenko in ICU, Getty Images

In 2006, former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko died an excruciating death in a London hospital. He had become a stern critic of the Kremlin. The radioactive isotope polonium-210 had been slipped into tea he was served, and it went right to work painfully degrading his bodily functions. It took an agonizing 21 days of unremitting pain for the man to die, while doctors working to help save his life tried to diagnose what was killing him; radioactive poisoning.

 

In Salisbury England in 2018 the Kremlin launched an attack targeting former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, with the nerve agent Novichok that made Skripal and his daughter seriously ill, but they survived. When a British woman came across a discarded bottle holding traces of the nerve agent, she died of its effects. Subsequently British intelligence found traces of the biological weapon in various places, posing a deadly threat to the public. 

 

In 2020, Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent that he identified as an attack by the Kremlin. This was not the first time attempts to poison him and cause his death occurred and he recognized the method and the medium as he became deathly ill. He was flown to Germany for medical attention, where he was treated and recovered from the attack. Rather than remain in safety out of the reach of the Kremlin he decided to return to Russia, where he was immediately imprisoned, with trumped-up charges.

 

Given one sentence after another on the basis of charges that could never stand up to scrutiny, he was imprisoned for years, and finally sent to the 'Polar Wolf' penal colony for an additional 19-year sentence. He was weak and ill and to no one's surprise several years later, he  died in that prison in the Russian Arctic. Cause of death, according to Russian authorities; high blood pressure caused by cardiac arrythmia. 

 

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2015 Photograph: Sefa Karacan/Andalou/Getty Images

 

Now, the foreign ministries of the U.K. France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands have announced findings from analyses in European laboratories of Navalny body samples that "conclusively confirmed the presence of epiatidine", a neurotoxin secreted by South American dart frogs. A toxin not found anywhere in Russia; but one that could be imported or chemically produced in a lab. "Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison", a joint statement read.

 

Leading to the five countries reporting Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Crusading against official corruption, Navalny staged massive anti-Kremlin protests. Navalny's poisoning demonstrates "that Vladimir Putin is prepared to use biological weapons against his own people in order to remain in power", stated French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

 

Last year, said Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnaya, two independent labs found her husband was poisoned shortly before his death. While according to Russian authorities, the imprisoned politician fell ill following a walk, dying from natural causes. Epibatidine acts on the body similarly to nerve agents, causing shortness of breath, convulsions, seizures, slowed heart rate, and ultimately death.

 

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny appears on a screen via video link from the IK-6 penal colony in the Vladimir region, during a court hearing to consider an appeal against his sentence in the criminal case on numerous charges, including the creation of an extremist organization, in Moscow, Russia September 26, 2023   Reuters

 

 

Russian Solutions To Dissent and Opposition

"I think the circumstances of his death are extremely suspicious. Whenever someone who is in a negative view of the Putin regime dies suspiciously, one should rule out foul play, not rule it in."

"He [Dan Rapoport’s fall from a luxury apartment building on the night of Aug. 14] was a well-known critic of Putin in the West and had been an effective critic."

"He was also an open supporter of [jailed opposition leader] Alexei Navalny. And he had all these connections in the elite of Washington, D.C."

"The immediate response of the Washington, D.C. police, I think, is a premature and unhelpful conclusion."

Anti-Putin critic Bill Browder

 

"[We call for the] soonest termination of the armed conflict. [And extend our] sincere empathy for all victims."

"We strongly support a lasting ceasefire and a settlement of problems through serious negotiations and diplomacy."

Ravil Maganov, chairman, Lukoil, March

Ravil Maganov (right) with Vladimir Putin. A Russian news site suggested Maganov slipped from a balcony when smoking. Photograph: Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP/Getty Images

 Slipped from a balcony while he was smoking. An inadvertent mis-step. Not a suicide, of course not a suicide. He was not a suicidal man, his colleagues, friends and family attest. But that's the thing about nicotine, it's a deadly substance. If it doesn't kill you with lung cancer, it'll sneakily cause you to miss a step and slither over a balcony -- however awkward that may be -- to your death. Those who snidely suggest Mr. Maganov's abandoned friendship with Mr. Putin and support for his regime was behind his death; what can we say?

On the other hand, a friendship and support that becomes a critic of a disastrous, bloody invasion of another country, now that could be a problem. Russia is special and it has become even more special under Vladimir Putin. Assassinations have always been a dime a dozen in high government circles almost everywhere, but particularly in Russia where it's a blood sport. And there are so many resourceful final solutions to choose from!

In this particular instance, defenestration, an oft-used method, tried and true. But then, there's also poisoning and it has proven to be quite successful, though not always. But then, those who manage to survive their poisoning ordeal can be punished for that kind of effrontery added to their insuperable criticism of Mr. Putin, by long and extended prison sentences. Stabbing works well, but not quite as efficiently as sharp-shooters. They are all, however options seeking the right time and place -- and suitable targets. 

But goodness, these events are popping off one after another, fast and furious. Perhaps that is the result of a furious Mr. Putin demanding of his henchmen that they dispatch themselves, fast and successfully. The Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow this week was a very busy place. It's where world-celebrated former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev breathed his last. And just incidentally where Mr. Maganov chose to slip on a balcony to fall to this death. A six-storey fall is always lethal  unless you're a rubber ducky.

Latbian-born American businessman, Dan Rapoport, a critic of Mr. Putin, only two weeks previously happened to fall from the window of his Washington, D.C. luxury apartment after he left Kyiv following the Russian invasion. Reports out of Russia that he died a suicide have been denied by his wife, awaiting a visa to join him in the U.S. fron Denmark.

And then there's Yegor Prosvirnin who founded the Sputnik and Pogrom news website who had the misfortune to fall from the fifth storey of a residential building in Moscow in 2021. The very day that neighbours heard "screaming and swearing" from his room. Another critic of Vladimir Putin, who predicted a collapse of the Russian Federation as a result of civil war.

Novatek natural gas firm former board director Sergei Protosenya hanged himself in a Spanish villa in Costa Brava where his wife and daughter were discovered hacked to death. A theory is being pursued by investigators that the man slaughtered his wife and daugher with an axe and knife then committed suicide, though no fingerprints were found on the murder weapons and no blood was found on him.

61-year-old Alexander Tyulyakov, former Gazprom deputy, found hanged near St.Petersburg in a cabin, a suicide note beside him. Head of Gazprom's transport service Leonid Shulman died of a suicide in January, in the bathroom of a cabin in the Leningrad area. A note left behind complaining his leg was broken. The knife he used to kill himself with multiple stab wounds lay in a bathtub but out of his reach.

People march in memory of Russian opposition leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov on March 1, 2015 in central Moscow.  Epsilon / Getty Images file