Alexei Navalny was killed by a 'KGB trademark' single punch to the heart

21 February 2024 , 08:28

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New claims have been made about the cause of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's death (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Alexei Navalny was killed in a 'KGB trademark' punch to his heart, it has been claimed.

The jailed Russian opposition leader was reported dead by Russia's prison service on Friday, though few details have so far been released about his cause of death.

Authorities have told his mother she will not be able to see his body for another two weeks while it is held for "chemical analysis".

Many of his supporters - including his own wife, Yulia Navalnaya - believe he was murdered by Vladimir Putin's repressive state, with one theory emerging that he had been poisoned the nerve agent Novichok.

Others have pointed to alleged signs of bruising found on his body as evidence of mistreatment. Navalny, who had led the banned Russia of the Future party and a leading anti-corruption campaign, had been imprisoned since returning from Germany in February 2021.

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Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnaya believes he was murdered by Vladimir Putin's men (Anadolu via Getty Images)

Now, Russian exile and human rights campaigner Vladimir Osechkin has reported that close sources inside the prison claim he was murdered by a single punch to his heart - a brutal and instant form of execution favoured by the KGB during Soviet times. Vladimir Osechkin told The Times: "It is an old method of the KGB's special forces divisions. They trained their operatives to kill a man with one punch in the heart, in the centre of the body. It was a hallmark of the KGB."

Mr Osechkin heads the Gulagu group, which receives information from inmates and staff in prison across Russia. He claims he had been provided the details by a worker at an arctic penal colony where Navalny died. Offering his own take on the theory, he said he believed that Navalny would have likely been put in open-air solitary confinement for several hours before his death, exposing him to extreme cold temperatures. The drop in blood circulation would make it "very easy to kill someone", he added.

Alexei Navalny is believed to have died on February 16 after he collapsed following a walk in prison. Russian authorities claim he died of "sudden death syndrome", though this has been widely rejected by world leaders and international human rights groups. On Saturday his body was reportedly misplaced, and it has still not been released to his family - leading his family to appeal directly to Putin.

In a video address on Monday from the IK-3 penal colony where he died, his mother Lyudmila Navalnaya said: "I haven't been able to see him for five days. His body hasn't been handed to me, I'm not being told where he is. I'm addressing you, Vladimir Putin. The solution to the issue depends only on you. Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexei's body be immediately returned to me so that I can bury him humanely."

Benedict Tetzlaff-Deas