Who Was Behind the Death of Alexei Navalny?

  • Context: News 
  • Thread starter Thread starter Astronuc
  • Start date Start date
Click For Summary
SUMMARY

Alexei Navalny, the prominent Russian opposition leader, died in prison at the age of 47, with preliminary reports attributing his death to natural causes. However, many commentators assert that his death is a result of murder orchestrated by the Russian state, particularly under the influence of President Vladimir Putin. Navalny's return to Russia after surviving a previous assassination attempt is highlighted as a critical misstep. The circumstances surrounding his death, including claims of mistreatment and isolation, suggest a deliberate effort to eliminate him.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of Russian political dynamics and opposition movements.
  • Knowledge of human rights issues within Russian penal systems.
  • Familiarity with the history of political assassinations in Russia.
  • Awareness of international responses to Russian state actions.
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the implications of political imprisonment in authoritarian regimes.
  • Examine the role of international law in addressing state-sponsored violence.
  • Investigate the history of Alexei Navalny's activism and previous assassination attempts.
  • Explore the impact of Navalny's death on Russian opposition movements and global political discourse.
USEFUL FOR

This discussion is beneficial for political analysts, human rights advocates, journalists covering international relations, and anyone interested in the dynamics of authoritarian governance and opposition in Russia.

Astronuc
Staff Emeritus
Science Advisor
Gold Member
2025 Award
Messages
22,502
Reaction score
7,428
  • Sad
  • Wow
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: collinsmark, mcastillo356, BillTre and 5 others
Physics news on Phys.org
Sad, but inevitable, given Putin's inclinations. Preliminary reports from Russia are calling it natural causes. Right.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: pinball1970 and BillTre
Astronuc said:
Navalny dies has been murdered
I agree that this is the logical conclusion, but is there evidence?
 
His fate was sealed when he decided to return to Russia. I never understood this. He should have stayed in Berlin among literally thousands of other Russians. I mean he has been nearly assassinated, barely survived, and then returned to a place where his murderers could try again?
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Triceratops, morrobay, pinball1970 and 2 others
Vanadium 50 said:
I agree that this is the logical conclusion, but is there evidence?
You mean other than the fact that they tried before?
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: pinball1970 and BillTre
fresh_42 said:
You mean other than the fact that they tried before?
AND the fact that Putin has made it clear that he wants his opponents dead and has had several of them murdered? He likely didn't even have to give a specific order to have Navalny killed in prison.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Triceratops, pinball1970 and BillTre
Reminder to keep the discussion, apolitical, neutral bias, and on topic.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: russ_watters
phinds said:
AND the fact that Putin has made it clear that he wants his opponents dead and has had several of them murdered? He likely didn't even have to give a specific order to have Navalny killed in prison.
A commentator here said: "He was kept under circumstances under which a healthy person would have struggled to survive."
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: pinball1970 and BillTre
phinds said:
Sad, but inevitable, given Putin's inclinations. Preliminary reports from Russia are calling it natural causes. Right.
Probably just food poisoning.
 
  • Haha
Likes   Reactions: Borg
  • #10
Greg Bernhardt said:
Reminder to keep the discussion, apolitical, neutral bias, and on topic.
Sorry, but this is a contradiction in itself.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: BillTre
  • #11
Astronuc said:
Alexei Navalny dies has been murdered in prison
There should be a different word for this. Murder is too personal, simplistic and law-bound for this kind of deed regularly done in dictatorships.
 
  • #12
russ_watters said:
Probably just food poisoning.
Probably too risky in case someone decides to allow an autopsy. The Russian winter in a Russian gulag did the job for nothing.
 
  • #13
fresh_42 said:
Sorry, but this is a contradiction in itself.
Maybe that was my point... this thread is likely not long for this world
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: russ_watters
  • #14
Vanadium 50 said:
I agree that this is the logical conclusion, but is there evidence?
I'm sure there is. Is it available to an objective entity? Most likely not.

Rive said:
There should be a different word for this. Murder is too personal
I'm using the legal term, which is conventionally and universally understood to mean, 'unjustified or illegal, or otherwise, 'unlawful and premeditated' homicide'.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: BillTre, pinball1970 and russ_watters
  • #15
Greg Bernhardt said:
Maybe that was my point... this thread is likely not long for this world
There is actually a good reason to close it before anybody says something that might bring them into trouble in case they want or have to travel to Russia for professional reasons.

I am glad my avatar picture on a bridge over the Terek was taken long ago.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: pinball1970
  • #16
I accept that we keep politics out of PF, but the price is that a thread like this cannot remain open. To keep it open and for no one to say anything feels like we all have our heads in the sand or our hands over our eyes.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: BillTre, Borg, pinball1970 and 2 others
  • #17
PeroK said:
I accept that we keep politics out of PF, but the price is that a thread like this cannot remain open. To keep it open and for no one to say anything feels like we all have our heads in the sand or our hands over our eyes.
... especially with the many assassinations of Russians on British and German ground in mind. Proof? A German court hasn't had any doubt. That is more than I can ever quote from the internet.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: BillTre, pinball1970 and PeroK
  • #18
russ_watters said:
Probably just food poisoning.
Or walking, he died following a walk. That's pretty reckless behaviour.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: BillTre
  • #19
Astronuc said:
I'm using the legal term, which is conventionally and universally understood to mean, 'unjustified or illegal, or otherwise, 'unlawful and premeditated' homicide'.
Where it falls short is, that the kind of ... mistreatment? deprival of means to live? - is exactly approved/supported by the local usage of legal system ...:confused:
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: BillTre
  • #20
Rive said:
Where it falls short is, that the kind of ... mistreatment? deprival of means to live? - is exactly approved/supported by the local usage of legal system ...:confused:
Claims are he spent 280 days in isolation up to his death.
 
  • #21
fresh_42 said:
His fate was sealed when he decided to return to Russia. I never understood this. He should have stayed in Berlin among literally thousands of other Russians.
That would have probably not saved him.

A German judge accused Russia of state terrorism over the murder in Berlin's Tiergarten of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, an ethnic Chechen of Georgian citizenship who commanded a militia in Chechnya's failed war seeking independence from Russia in the 2000s.
HOW WAS PUTIN INVOLVED?
The judge said the order to kill Khangoshvili, who was no longer active in the Chechen independence movement, must have come from Putin, noting that Russian law gave him power to authorise operations to kill people the state regards as "terrorists", even abroad. Russia contests the judge's interpretation.
Source:
https://www.reuters.com/world/vadim...an-putin-wants-swap-us-journalist-2024-02-09/
 
  • #23
Some background.

He was exposed to a nerve agent in 2020 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6039123/

That would potentially shorten his life combined with a long term stay in a high security facility in Russia, with multiple stints in solitary confinement.
Years were added too.
Be interesting to get info on the autopsy if they allow that.
 
Last edited:
  • #25
pinball1970 said:
Some background.

He was exposed to an agent in 2020 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6039123/

That would potentially shorten his life combined with a long term stay in a high security facility in Russia, with multiple stints is solitary confinement.
Years were added too.
Be interesting to get info on the autopsy if they allow that.
And after that, he made in 2020 an interesting telephone call.

Navalny says he tricked spy into admitting poisoning
Source (i.e. at 11m20s):

 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: BillTre, pinball1970 and fresh_42
  • #26
Rive said:
There should be a different word for this. Murder is too personal, simplistic and law-bound for this kind of deed regularly done in dictatorships.
"Trotsky/i was blanked/assassinated/icepicked/rockpicked...?" He got Trotskied, perhaps? No question who ordered it; one might offer the term "Beria'd" to keep with the spirit, if not the sense/feeling of the event.
 
  • #27
Another airplane "accident" would have been too suspicious for a gulag prisoner.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: pinball1970
  • #28
Frabjous said:
I would use the word “executed”.
Not repellent enough.

Navalny deserves a standing ovation but sadly will never see it now.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: BillTre and pinball1970
  • #29
fresh_42 said:
You mean other than the fact that they tried before?
Yes, that's exactly what I am asking.
 
  • #30
Vanadium 50 said:
Yes, that's exactly what I am asking.
Putin is an old Большевики and probably did what they always did: let the Russian winter and the ГУЛаг do the job. I assume that Новичо́к (##LD_{50}=1\,mg##) has set the stage for them to work.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: pinball1970

Similar threads

  • · Replies 153 ·
6
Replies
153
Views
14K
  • · Replies 108 ·
4
Replies
108
Views
18K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
  • · Replies 39 ·
2
Replies
39
Views
9K
  • · Replies 20 ·
Replies
20
Views
4K
  • · Replies 45 ·
2
Replies
45
Views
8K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
Replies
10
Views
5K
  • · Replies 21 ·
Replies
21
Views
3K
  • · Replies 65 ·
3
Replies
65
Views
11K