Yves here. John Helmer is continuing to follow l’affaire Navalny, having documented that Navalny appears to have cut his wife entirely out of his will. That is not surprising given other accounts that Navalny’s wife was living off his money and name while swanning about with another man and not even bothering to visit Navalny in prison.
By John Helmer, the longest continuously serving foreign correspondent in Russia, and the only western journalist to direct his own bureau independent of single national or commercial ties. Helmer has also been a professor of political science, and an advisor to government heads in Greece, the United States, and Asia. He is the first and only member of a US presidential administration (Jimmy Carter) to establish himself in Russia. Originally published at Dances with Bears
Alexei Navalny’s organization outside Russia is now repudiating Lyudmila Navalnaya, Navalny’s mother, for having accepted the medical evidence and official certification that the cause of his death was an embolism, or blood clot, which stopped his heart.
On Monday, several days after the release of the post-mortem documents and of Navalny’s body to his mother’s custody, Maria Pevchikh, Navalny’s script writer, and Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s press secretary, have repeated their allegations that Navalny had been murdered. In their revised version of the story on Monday, Pevchikh claimed in a self-produced video that “on February 16, 2024, Vladimir Putin killed Alexei Navalny”.
Reuters, the New York-based news agency, reported Pevchikh’s claim, adding that “Maria Pevchikh, who is based outside Russia, did not present documentary evidence for her assertion.” The New York Times amplified Pevchikh’s allegations, but omitted the Reuters qualifier. The newspaper did not report attempting to make contact with Lyudmila Navalnaya but added this innuendo: “it remained unclear whether his family would seek to conduct an independent autopsy before his burial.”
“Alexei Navalny could be sitting in this seat right now, right today,” Pevchikh broadcast. “That’s not a figure of speech, it could and should have happened…Navalny was supposed to be free in the coming days.” Pevchikh then recited details of a purported exchange of Russian spies in prison outside Russia in exchange for Navalny and Americans in Russian prisons.
The NATO-funded Bellingcat organization was involved, Pevchikh said. “Investigator Hristo Grozev helped us devise and implement this plan.” Negotiations took place with American and German officials, she said, but “they did nothing.” She then said: “Roman Abramovich was the one who delivered the proposal to swap Navalny to Putin. As an informal negotiator communicating with American and European officials, and at the same time representing Putin; an unofficial channel of communication with the Kremlin.” Pevchikh claims she asked Abramovich for details of what had been told to Putin and what the president replied. “Unfortunately”, Pevchikh said, “Abramovich did not answer these questions but he did not deny anything either.”
Yarmysh followed Pevchikh with a 3-line tweet: “We know why Alexei was killed right now. He should have been exchanged literally these days. An offer was made to Putin.”
The evidence of prisoner swaps between the US, Germany, and Russia is no news and corroborated officially, although the identities of the swap candidates keep changing, as do the names of the reported go-betweens. Abramovich’s role as the intermediary in the abortive Istanbul negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian officials of March 2022 has not been followed with any report of subsequent intermediation by Abramovich, except to save himself from sanctions.
All that is missing from the new Pevchikh-Yarmysh announcements is the medical evidence of the cause of Navalny’s death. That is being closely held by Navalny’s mother, and she is in charge of the arrangements for his funeral.
In her latest tweet, Yarmysh implies this too is no longer under the outside organization’s control, as it proposes an alternative, parallel ceremony. “We are looking for a hall for a public farewell to Alexei,” Yarmysh said yesterday. “Time: end of this work week. If you have suitable premises, please contact us.”
Pevchikh is based in London; Yarmysh left Russia in 2021 and is also abroad. They are the Whites now. The Reds, Navalny’s mother and Anatoly Navalny, his father, remain in Moscow. The Reds are holding the evidence that Navalny was not murdered and that everything the Whites are saying is false.
The 7-minute Pevchikh video applies the method of repeating the lie several times over with the juxtaposition of unrelated evidence to create the appearance of veracity.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqevNxQ2T8Y
Pevchikh’s video appeared early on Monday afternoon, Moscow time. At the same time, Yarmysh issued a tweet – her first since acknowledging two days earlier that Navalny’s body had been transferred, together with the medical documents, to his mother. Yarmysh’s new release provided the link to Pevchikh’s video.
Source: https://twitter.com/
An hour and a half later Yarmysh broadcast an appeal for an alternative to his funeral and burial.
Source: https://twitter.com
Christo Grozev has been a member of the Bellingcat organisation in several of its formations and financings since 2015. His byline has not appeared on the Bellingcat website since 2022. Follow the archive on Bellingcat here.
Grozev has been a close collaborator with the Navalny organization and with Yulia Navalnaya since Navalny’s time in Germany from August 22, 2020, to January 17, 2021; and then during the production of the documentary film which was first announced on January 13, 2021, and premiered on January 25, 2022. Follow the story of the film here.
Source: https://johnhelmer.net/
Left, Christo Grozev (foreground left) in the recording studio preparing for Navalny’s fabricated telephone call in which an FSB agent admitted to the Novichok-in-underpants plot, December 2020. Right: Grozev with Yulia Navalnaya and Maria Pevchikh at the New York City screening of the Navalny documentary film, April 6, 2022.
Grozev has been publishing a Twitter stream since 2010, reporting himself as a journalist with the Bellingcat website.
Last week, on February 20, Grozev claimed in an interview with Meduza, which is published in Latvia, that he was pursuing evidence to support his theory of poisoning as the cause of Navalny’s death. There has been no response from Grozev on Twitter or other media since Navalnaya received the body and the medical documents.
