Novichok survivor whose partner was killed by Putin’s assassins warns Alexei Navalny’s widow ‘you could be next’ – as Russian officials finally release his body nine days after his death

A survivor of the Salisbury Novichok poisonings has warned Alexei Navalny’s widow that she ‘could be next’.

Charlie Rowley’s partner Dawn Sturgess was killed by the deadly nerve agent in 2018 and left him partially paralyzed.

Now he fears Yulia Navalnaya could be Putin’s next victim and has warned her to ‘watch her out’.

His intervention comes after Navalnaya released a video insisting that Putin used Novichok to kill her imprisoned husband after he “couldn’t be broken.”

The body of the deceased Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was handed over to his mother today after a nine-day wait.

Yulia Navalnaya recently released a video insisting that Putin used Novichok to kill her imprisoned husband after he ‘couldn’t be broken’

Rowley’s partner Dawn Sturgess (pictured) was unknowingly poisoned by Novichok, leading to her death in 2018

Alexei Navalny, pictured in court in 2021, died suddenly on February 16 after a walk, according to Russia. His shocking death at the age of 47 has led critics to blame Putin for direct involvement

Mr Rowley, 50, said The mirror news of Navalny’s death sent him spiraling back into PTSD and his worst nightmares.

He said that if he ever meets Yulia, he will be linked to her because he knows Putin is “destroying lives” because he destroyed his and his partner Dawn.

‘But I want to warn her to keep an eye on her. “Be very careful or she could be next,” he told the newspaper.

Mr Rowley still lives in fear and said he could say nasty words about Putin, but he doesn’t want to.

He is still traumatized by the events surrounding the alleged attempted murder of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, 68, in Salisbury.

In March 2018, both he and his then 33-year-old daughter Yulia were rushed to hospital in critical condition after coming into contact with Novichok – a deadly nerve agent concocted by Soviet scientists during the Cold War.

Russian agents spied on Sergei and Yulia Skripal (pictured) five years before the Salisbury novichok poisoning – they both survived

Mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess (left) and her partner Charlie Rowley (right) fell ill in the flat after touching a perfume bottle containing the poison. She died on July 8, 2018 in hospital in Salisbury, Wiltshire. Mr Rowley was left seriously ill but recovered

The counterfeit perfume box found by Mr Rowley in June 2018

Both Russian suspects escaped after the attack. Russia claims they were just tourists visiting the tall spire of the famous cathedral

They survived the suspected murder attempt, but four months later Mr Rowley found Nina Ricci’s fake perfume bottle in the bin of a charity shop, which contained the Novichok that the Moscow assassins had used in their initially failed assassination of the Skripals.

He gave it to his partner Mrs Sturgess, who unknowingly sprayed it on her wrist.

The couple were admitted to hospital within hours and tragically Mrs Sturgess, 44, died on July 8, 2018.

Mr Rowley suffered multiple strokes and nerve damage and lost his home after the attack as the property was severely contaminated.

Recalling his ordeal, Mr Rowley said he is certain Navalny would have experienced his “worst nightmare”.

He said the disease made him feel like he was going through “hell.”

Yesterday, supporters of 47-year-old Navalny celebrated after his body was finally returned to his family after a nine-day wait.

Navalny during a hearing via video link from the Kharp penal colony on January 11, 2024

Yulia Navalnaya, wife of the late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, leaves the Europa Building in Brussels on February 19, three days after her husband’s death

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a presentation in Kazan, February 22, 2024

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia Navalnaya in September 2020

Navalnaya said in her speech that Putin’s decision not to release the body was “satanism.”

Russia previously said it would not release Navalny’s body to his family for a fortnight as investigators probe the hazy circumstances of his death – a move critics said would indicate foul play.

Navalny was previously poisoned with Novichok while investigating Russian corruption in 2020.

It is not yet known what caused Navalny’s death, with Russia initially claiming he died of ‘sudden death syndrome’ after a walk on February 16.

Paramedics reportedly arrived to try to rehabilitate him, without success.

Navalny, who was serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges of “extremism,” had only recently been transferred from his former prison in the Vladimir region of central Russia to a gruesome “special regime” penal colony above the Arctic Circle.

Navalny was last seen via video link during a court hearing.

Yulia Navalnaya, who has vowed to continue her late husband’s anti-corruption work, said in a new video directly accusing Putin of responsibility for Navalny’s death: ‘What Putin is doing now is hatred. No, it’s not even hate, it’s Satanism.’

‘What are you going to do with his body? How low will you stoop to mock the man you killed?” she continued.

The Kremlin has denied allegations of involvement in Navalny’s death, calling the West’s response “hysterical.”

Putin, who has never spoken Navalny’s name in public, has made no comment on the death of his most outspoken critic.

After a private meeting with US President Joe Biden on Thursday, Yulia Navalnaya spoke candidly about her husband’s death in a video shared on YouTube.