Alexei Navalny death: When Putin's critic was poisoned with 'Novichok' nerve agent in 2020
ALSO READ: 'Alexei Navalny felt unwell after walk, lost consciousness': Russian authority on Putin critic's death In Navalny’s case, independent national labs in Sweden and Finland and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed the German lab’s findings. An investigation team of independent journalists in December 2020 implicated Russia’s Federal Security Service in the poisoning. The media team comprised Bellingcat, a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group, The Insider, Der Spiegel of Germany, and CNN.
This finding was later confirmed by the United States and others. When the reports revealed of poisoning, Russian authorities began an aggressive disinformation campaign to deny their role in the attack. The Omsk hospital technicians said Navalny could have become ill because of alcohol use, fatigue, or poor diet.
Putin loyalists and state-controlled media widely repeated that false theory. Also, Russian officials and state-run media spread several false claims after the incident, including Navalny drinking 'village moonshine' before his flight, poisoning occurred in Germany and not in Russia, and Western governments were attempting to smear Russia by fabricating the account. Between August 2020 and January 2021, according to EUvsDisinfo, pro-Kremlin media outlets published more than 200 false items about the poisoning.
ALSO READ: Vladimir Putin critic passes away in Russian prison — Who was Alexei Navalny? As he returned from Germany, Navalny was arrested in January 2021 and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for parole violations. In March 2022, he was sentenced to nine more years in a maximum security prison on charges of fraud and contempt. Last year, he was again convicted of
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