"Blood clot"

Navalny: Kneissl jumps on the bandwagon of Putin propaganda

The death of prominent Russian Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny raises many questions. According to the prison administration, the 47-year-old collapsed after a walk. According to Russian media reports, Navalny died of a blood clot. The natural cause of death is strongly doubted by international observers. Austria's former Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, however, once again supports the Kremlin's propaganda. 

"Alexei Navalny died in a prison colony. This was announced by the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. According to a source, a blood clot broke loose," Kneissl wrote on Telegram.

Kneissl: "He received all necessary resuscitation measures"
And added: "The website states that he felt unwell after a walk and fainted. He then received all the necessary resuscitation measures, which did not lead to a positive result."

Critics: Kneissl entirely in the service of Russian propaganda
Kneissl was Austria's Foreign Minister - nominated by the FPÖ - from 2017 until the Ibiza scandal in 2019. Most recently, she attracted attention for her Russia-friendly statements. Critics see her as being entirely in the service of Russian propaganda, especially as she can often be seen on Russian state television.

Kneissl has since moved to St. Petersburg
In September, she announced her relocation to Russia. On the fringes of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, she justified her decision with her work in a think tank that the State University in St. Petersburg had set up for the former Austrian politician last summer. St. Petersburg is also the hometown of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. Kneissl not only invited Putin to her wedding in 2018, but also met him in person several times.

(Bild: APA/HERBERT PFARRHOFER, AP Maria Sbytova, stock.adobe.com, Krone KREATIV)

Kneissl on Putin: "Ideal image of a perfect gentleman"
 Just last December, she revealed in a BBC interview that she was a "huge fan of Vladimir Putin", praised the academic freedom at St. Petersburg University and emphasized that no one in her circle had been affected by political repression to date. "He (Putin, editor's note) is the most intelligent gentleman, with the emphasis on gentleman, and I have met a few," Kneissl explained. She compared the Russian president to the ideal image of a "perfect gentleman" that the British writer Jane Austen drew in her novel "Pride and Prejudice" in the early 19th century.

Putin critics are tortured and arrested
While Kneissl describes the Kremlin leader as a "gentleman", his critics and supporters of Navalny are currently being beaten, tortured and arrested on the streets (see tweet below).

By late Friday evening, more than 100 people had been arrested at commemorative events in several Russian cities, according to the civil rights organization Ovd-Info. Arrests were reported in the capital Moscow, the Baltic metropolis of St. Petersburg and six other cities.

According to Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmish, the investigating authorities informed a lawyer for the opposition politician that the cause of the 47-year-old's death was still unclear and that the body would have to be examined further. Results are not expected until next week.

Navalny's death: mother and lawyer search for body
The spokeswoman called for the body to be handed over to Navalny's family immediately. According to her, Navalny's mother Lyudmila Navalnaya visited a mortuary in the town of Salekhard in the Arctic Circle on Saturday to receive her son's remains, but to no avail.

Alexei Navalny(Bild: APA/AFP/KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV)

Navalny's "murderers" are trying to cover their tracks 
Following the death of prominent Russian Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, his supporters have accused the authorities of preventing the handover of his body in order to cover the tracks of his "murderers". "It is obvious that the murderers want to cover their tracks and are therefore not handing over his body and even hiding it from his mother," Navalny's team explained on Telegram on Saturday.