Alexei Navalny: Khodorkovsky (Open Russia), “Regime is responsible”. Gudkov (Party of Change): the dissident was poisoned

The death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny is still clouded in mystery. A video from the SOTA channel, allegedly from yesterday, is circulating on the Telegram channels of the Russian opposition. It shows the dissident appearing before the Kovrovsky court via video link from the prison colony in Kharp where he was detained. Navalny is seen standing up and laughing. There were no reports of any health problems, although on 14 February, for the 27th time since the beginning of his detention, Navalny had been sent to a punishment cell and was supposed to remain there for 15 days. Putin’s spokesperson stated that the President had been informed and that all necessary investigations would be carried out to ascertain the cause of his death. But for the opposition, it is clear. According to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the exiled oligarch and founder of Open Russia, regime is responsible for Navalny’s “premature death” for he “first gave the green light to the poisoning of Alexei and then put him in prison”. According to Dmitry Gudkov, leader of the Party of Change, “even if Alexei died of natural causes”, those “were triggered by his poisoning and further torture in prison. The blood is on Putin’s hands. One more person added to the hundreds of thousands of casualties of this war”.Valentina Bombelli