Russian doctors demand investigation into prison staff negligence over Navalny’s death

Over 100 Russian doctors have signed an open letter to Russia’s Investigative Committee demanding that a criminal case be opened into the conduct of prison staff at the Arctic penal colony where opposition politician Alexey Navalny died suddenly in February.

Earlier this month, Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya revealed that in July the Russian authorities ruled Navalny’s death had been caused by “arrhythmia” brought on by a “combination of illnesses” including “hypertension with vascular and organ damage, diffuse myocardial sclerosis complicated by the development of cerebral edema, ventricular fibrillation, and pulmonary edema.”

In their letter, the doctors argued that such organ damage would have arisen from long-term hypertension and a pronounced increase in blood pressure, both of which should have been detected in the medical examinations required prior to each of Navalny’s regular trips to solitary confinement.

“However, hypertensive therapy was not prescribed to Alexey, and he continued to be regularly sent to solitary confinement despite his existing medical conditions, which ultimately led to the development of such serious complications of hypertension as pulmonary edema, cerebral edema, ventricular fibrillation and death,” the doctors wrote.

“In connection with the above, it is obvious that Alexey Navalny’s death occurred as a result of negligence on the part of Federal Penitentiary Service employees,” they added.

While the signatories to the open letter hold the prison authorities responsible for Navalny’s death, both Yulia Navalnaya and Navalny’s personal doctor Alexander Polupan have expressed their scepticism at the overall post-factum diagnosis, with Polupan openly calling the Investigative Committee’s assertion that a “combination of illnesses” had caused the late opposition politician’s sudden death “bullshit”.