Navalny, who lost his life on a Friday, had multiple bruises on his body, including the chest area next to his head. According to a medical officer speaking to the exiled Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, such injuries are typically seen on individuals who have experienced a convulsive episode.

"When a person has seizures and someone tries to restrain them, bruising can occur. There was also a bruise on his chest - indicating that there may have been attempts to resuscitate him, and it's likely he died from cardiac arrest," the unnamed physician explained.

Press reports indicate that Navalny's body has not yet been autopsied. However, over the weekend, two aircraft arrived from Moscow to Salekhard, the city closest to Navalny's prison. According to The Telegraph, these flights, which were not scheduled in advance, likely carried forensic experts.

The discovery of Navalny's body came after his mother and the Anti-Corruption Foundation, a civil organization founded by the politician, reported on Saturday that they did not know his whereabouts. Although his mother traveled to Salekhard, the local morgue denied having Navalny's body on that same Saturday.

UNCERTAINTIES SURROUND NAVALNY'S DEATH

According to official statements, the Russian opposition leader suddenly fell ill after a walk and lost consciousness immediately. The prison attempted to resuscitate him but without success.

Prison authorities told Navalny's mother he died of “sudden death syndrome,” while an unnamed source close to Kremlin-run RT suggested a blood clot caused the death.

As Reuters points out, Navalny previously experienced health issues due to poor conditions - last year, he suffered severe abdominal pain, and a year before, he was losing teeth due to poor nutrition.

Nevertheless, just a day before his death, he appeared cheerful and joking in court.

His organization had repeatedly expressed concerns that Navalny could be mistreated or even killed in prison. Since his incarceration, he had been placed in solitary confinement as punishment several times and was locked up in one of Russia's toughest prisons, the "Polar Wolf" colony, where temperatures can drop to -32 degrees Celsius in winter.

Navalny often wrote about these conditions on his social media, usually with humor. For instance, in January, he referred to a scene from Leonardo DiCaprio's movie "The Revenant," jokingly dismissing the idea of survival inside a carcass in the Arctic.

"I don't think that would work here. A dead horse would freeze in 15 minutes. You'd need an elephant here, a hot, roasted elephant," he wrote.

Since his death, protests have erupted across Russia, with over four hundred people detained by the police. Protesters have been laying flowers at former Soviet monuments, thereby avoiding direct confrontations with state authorities, yet the demonstrations are still being suppressed.

Alexei Navalny passed away on February 16, 2024, at the age of 47.