Was Navalny’s ‘murder’ a gift for one of Putin’s cronies? Independent Russian media claims Russian despot sanctioned poisoning to celebrate his university classmate Alexander Bastrykin’s 70th birthday

Vladimir Putin approved the murder of Alexei Navalny “as a birthday present for Russia’s top detective,” a leading independent media outlet claimed today.

According to the respected independent SOTA media outlet, the Russian president is said to have approved the murder of prominent Russian opposition leader (47) university colleague Alexander Bastrykin.

The newspaper claimed that Navalny was gradually poisoned after Putin personally gave the green light as a “gift” for Bastrykin’s 70th birthday on August 27, 2023. Navalny died almost six months later.

Bastrykin, long-time head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, seen by some as an equivalent of the FBI, harbored a “personal grudge” against Navalny, according to the respected independent SOTA media outlet.

The Kremlin has denied its involvement in Navalny’s death, claiming today that he had died of “sudden death syndrome” after returning from a walk through the penal colony where he was being held in Kharp, Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin smiles Friday as he visits a forge in Chelyabinsk, Russia

Head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, pictured in Moscow in June 2023

SOTA claimed that after Navalny’s arrest, Bastrykin “sought Putin’s sanction to kill Navalny in the (penal) colony, eventually enlisting the support of the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Arkady Gostev.”

Bastrykin had hounded Navalny for years with false prosecutions, Western governments and independent analysts said.

He also opened criminal cases against Navalny’s lawyers, which were seen as politically motivated by the Russian opposition.

“In August 2023, Vladimir Putin authorized the slow poisoning of Alexei Navalny as a ‘gift’ for Bastrykin’s 70th birthday,” SOTA reported without providing evidence.

“Under the original plan, it was assumed that the politician would die of cardiovascular disease before the end of 2023. But the death did not occur until February 16.”

SOTA reported that Navalny had expressed concern to his team that he was “receiving, in his opinion, some kind of poison.”

‘According to the biochemist with whom SOTA spoke, if the information about the blood clot from which Navalny died is correct, we could talk about any coagulant substance, which given the lack of water in the (penal) colony and the torture regime of detention inevitably led to thickening of the blood and, as a result, death,” the independent news channel reported.

Just a few weeks ago, in December, Navalny was transferred to a remote penal colony some 2,000 kilometers northeast of Moscow, where temperatures can reach -30 degrees Celsius.

His team expressed concern that they had not been in contact with him for weeks – and did not know where he was – until he broke his silence on Boxing Day last year.

‘Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I am totally relieved that I finally succeeded,” Navalny wrote on en route.

The anti-corruption activist was last seen via video link during a court hearing on Thursday.

Dressed in a black prison uniform, he seemed cheerful and his trademark humor was visible again.

“Your Honor, I will send you my personal account number so that you can use your enormous salary as a federal judge to ‘warm up’ my personal account because I am running out of money,” he said.

State media reported that he had not raised any health complaints during the session.

His mother said she saw her son at the prison colony on Monday. She said at the time: ‘He was alive, healthy, cheerful.’

Navalny gained international attention in 2020 when it emerged he had been poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent upon returning from a corruption investigation in Siberia.

The Kremlin denied any involvement, but the US, UK and EU hit Russian officials with sanctions at the time.

Navalny eventually recovered thanks to German doctors after Putin allowed the ailing politician to be flown to the West.

Despite the assassination attempt, Navalny voluntarily returned to Russia – where he was immediately jailed – even though he could have safely remained in the West.

Lyudmila Navalnaya, the mother of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and lawyer Vasily Dubkov arrive at the regional branch of the Russian Investigative Committee in the city of Salekhard in the Yamal-Nenets region, Russia on February 17, 2024

Navalny appears via video link from the Arctic penal colony where he was found dead on January 11, 2024

The IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, where Navalny was reported dead after the collapse on Friday