A source told Novaya Gazeta Europe that Alexey Navalny’s body is in the Salekhard district clinical hospital morgue.
According to the source, Navalny’s body was brought there on the evening of February 16. As of February 17, no autopsy had been conducted, he said. Journalists speculate that the hospital is waiting for specialists from Moscow. There are only two flights from Moscow to the city each day, but a local taxi driver said that two planes arrived at the Salekhard airport late on Saturday, outside of the regular schedule.
“They were small planes. The first landed at around 6 p.m. and was met by [Russian] Investigative Committee cars. And the second one landed about an hour and a half later. I personally didn’t see who was on it, but colleagues said that about eight people got off the plane,” he said. Journalists think specialists tasked with conducting the autopsy may have been on the second flight.
A Salekhard paramedic told Novaya Gazeta that there were bruises on Navalny’s body consistent with a seizure or outside restraint during convulsions. The worker noted that Navalny also had a bruise on his chest, which they said was likely indicative of chest compressions performed during CPR. “That is, they did try to resuscitate him, and he probably died from cardiac arrest. But no one is saying yet why he went into cardiac arrest,” the paramedic stated.
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