18 September 2025
by Anna Karetnikova
Source: Facebook
I provided commentary for VotTak regarding new details in the investigation of Aleksei Navalny’s death, and I wanted to write a little here from the standpoint of someone who has taken part in inspections and mini-investigations inside the system many times. More than finding out exactly which substance was used to poison Aleksei (this is also important), I’m interested in how he came into contact with this substance, that is, what there might be on those video recordings which were defective on the day of his death or else were promptly deleted. Judging from the speed at which events unfolded, contact with the substance more than likely occurred on the day of his death. (Of course, it may also have been in the cell Aleksei was moved to and been activated somehow, but given the general disarray in the system, this version seems less likely). That is, this substance had to have come to and come in contact with him somehow on 16 February, right? So how could that have happened? Who could have brought the poison? How did it get into the ShIZO [punishment cell] and onto Aleksei’s hands, food, or body?
The usual daily routine is this. At six o’clock, get up (in the ShIZO, I think it’s five o’clock), the cot gets attached to the wall so the prisoner can sit only on the stool. Then, morning inspection, staff rounds. At that moment, the prisoner is taken out of the cell, he stands at the wall in the corridor, a guard goes into his cell, and he bangs a mallet on the cot, the table, and the window gratings. The prisoner can’t see what is happening in the cell (unlike the video surveillance cameras). The poison could have gotten into the cell at that point.
The next point is the midday meal. The meal is passed out, as a rule, by a prisoner from the custodial crew accompanied by a guard. He ladles out the gruel from a common vat, where there obviously was no poison. But something else could have been passed into the cell in an individual portion. The ladler might have done it in secret from the guard, or the guard in secret from the ladler. Possibly, it was this something that poisoned Aleksei.
Who else could have been on the block and come close to the cell? Opened the food hatch and put something through it? A representative from the spetschast [special ops unit], or, more likely, an operations officer who brought some kind of document to give him or have him sign, for example. This likelihood cannot be ruled out.
There is one other, final point—the exercise period. You’ve seen the photograph of the yard, there’s nothing there but benches. If some extraneous object turns up there, the prisoner is sure to pick it up and examine it. By the way, the exercise yard, naturally, to say nothing of the ShIZO, is certainly equipped with a video camera.
I think these are the things worth focusing on. Who exactly was in the ShIZO block that day and approached Aleksei’s cell? Sooner or later, I think we will learn the answers to these questions, and we are approaching that moment. Yes, after what happened, I think, the institution’s head (possibly joined by some important official from the administration or central board) gathered the collective and said, So if there are any questions or confusion, bring them to me specifically, God forbid you turn to anyone else, that’s curtains for you. And I don’t rule out him reinforcing this message with a decent prize for the whole collective.
But. Time passes, threats fade, prizes are spent, staff get transferred to other institutions or resign, prisoners, too, may if not be released then be moved to other subdivisions. Sooner or later various details come to light from which a picture can be composed. People do talk among themselves and not only themselves. Therefore it’s important to pose the question correctly. Here’s how I’ve formulated mine.
Therefore, thank you for the investigation, maybe it does not have a lot of new information, but it returns us to an important topic and helps us formulate what exactly we want to find out.
Follow the link in the comments—I spell it out. In case I omitted something in this post. [1]
P.S. It has been reasonably suggested to me that I’ve left out the medical worker. Yes, he is required to be present at the morning inspection of the ShIZO cells and may have given Aleksei some kind of medication. Then that moment, too, would have been recorded by the video cameras.
[1] Link in the comments: https://www.youtube.com/live/1pvpqnueaVI?t=1602s
Translated by Marian Schwartz
