Evidence is available

Grozev: Putin is certainly behind Navalny’s murder

The deceased opposition activist Alexei Navalny(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

For the famous investigative journalist and Navalny confidant Christo Grozev, one thing is clear: the Russian president definitely caused the opposition leader's death. The Navalny friend now wants to investigate this - and is observing a growing paranoia in the Russian president.

"Under no circumstances would Navalny have died without Vladimir Putin's express permission," explained Grozev in a written interview with "Falter" (Wednesday edition).

Navalny was too valuable for future negotiations, such as prisoner exchanges, with the West; the global and domestic political repercussions were too significant "to leave anything to chance". There are indications that "his death must have been planned and precisely timed". However, Grozev refers to a possible publication of these clues by Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya.

Putin "increasingly paranoid"since coup attempt
Despite his value and the effects that are now visible, Navalny would have posed a threat to the Russian president even in prison, Grozev said. It was feared that Navalny could become a figure of integration for opponents of the Russian war of aggression - and could therefore also have had an influence on the Russian presidential elections in March. In addition, Putin had become "increasingly paranoid" after the attempted coup by the head of the mercenary force Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin last year.

Following the death of Alexei Navalny, the Russian power apparatus took ruthless action against those who mourned the Kremlin critic.(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Relocation to permafrost region facilitated attack
Grozev, who played a leading role in exposing the perpetrators - Russian agents - after Navalny was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in 2020, declared that he would also investigate the background to his death. "We are trying to solve the case using all the methods available to us and which we also used in 2020. However, the Russian authorities will be better prepared this time and conceal the evidence." Navalny's transfer to "penal colony no. 3" would have facilitated the possibility of an attack on him. "In the remote permafrost region" it is easier to hide and eliminate evidence than in a prison near Moscow.

Hundreds help with research
"Dozens of Russian colleagues are researching, hundreds of volunteers are now digging through the data," explained the journalist. "I trust that we will find the culprits even faster than in 2020. There are also more informants now, including in the FSB and the criminal authorities. The unease and latent opposition to the war is also growing among these people."

After returning to Moscow from Berlin, where he was treated following the poison attack in 2020, Navalny was aware that he could be killed. "Navalny certainly hoped that he would survive. But he was aware that it could turn out differently," said Grozev.