While the announcement of the death of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny made headlines in the world press this Friday, February 16, the reactions of the Russian media diverged. Some contented themselves with laconic publications, such as the Telegram Mash channel, known to be close to power, the Moscow-based online news site Gazeta.Ru, or the newspaper Nezavissimaïa Gazeta, which published short dispatches about the death of Navalny, including the press release from the prison services (FSIN), according to which “on February 16, 2024, in penitentiary center No. 3, prisoner Navalny A.A. felt unwell after a walk”. The news is virtually absent from the website of the national news agency, Tass, which has published several short dispatches, reporting for example that “it took less than seven minutes for the ambulance team to respond to the call , according to the Labytnangi City Hospital.
In addition to the announcement of the death of the opponent, several media such as the tabloid Moskovski Komsomolets broadcast certain reactions, such as the press release from the Russian spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Vladimirovna Zakharova: “the immediate reaction of NATO leaders on the death of Alexei Navalny, in the form of direct accusations against Russia, is revealing. There is no forensic examination yet, but the West’s conclusions are already ready.
At midday, the first Russian television channel would have contented itself with mentioning Navalny’s death while reading the press release from the prison services, without attaching particular importance to it, according to information from Le Monde. A few hours after the announcement, the online news site Readkova picked up information from state television channel RT that Alexei Navalny’s death was caused by a “blood clot.”
Information that independent Russian media was quick to criticize: “I am sure that the blood clot (if it was one) is a direct consequence of the 27th sentence in a cell,” declared in a column the Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner and editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Dmitri Muratov.
“What isolation is: immobility, low-calorie food, lack of air, constant cold. Alexei Navalny was tortured and tormented for three years. As Navalny’s doctor told me: the body cannot withstand such torture,” he added. Unlike other local media, Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper known for its fight for freedom of expression in Russia, published several analytical and opinion articles on the front page of its site.
Meduza, an independent Russian media outlet based in Latvia, also dedicated its site to covering Navalny’s death. “We are furious. And we will remember this day in every detail, so that this rage does not leave us,” declared its editorial board. “Personal responsibility for the death of Alexei Navalny lies with the man who proclaimed himself president of Russia. Putin killed Navalny,” Meduza journalists added, before concluding: “Alexei Navalny laughed at evil and never despaired. And, of course, he would have burst out laughing while reading this funeral speech.
The opposition newspaper also declared that it had spoken with “its sources in the Kremlin”, including a “political strategist” who “expects that Russian propagandists will offer the public, as always, several stories at once “. The Meduza article also states that “a journalist from one of the pro-government Russian media outlets” told them that “his publication had already received instructions on how to cover the death of Alexei Navalny.” According to this source, Navalny should be presented as a person “imprisoned under a criminal article, an extremist,” and his poisoning should not be mentioned.
The Russian daily Kommersant, for its part, devoted a long article to Navalny, highlighted on its site. While recalling the information available on the circumstances of the death of the opposition figure, the newspaper also endeavored to list his problems with Russian justice. A Kommersant journalist, Andrei Kolesnikov, also questioned Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov about the possibility that the death was caused by a blood clot: “I don’t know. It’s up to the doctors to find out,” Dmitri Peskov would have responded, whose comments are transcribed in this long article. The journalist explains that he also contacted Alexeï Navalny’s lawyer, Leonid Soloviev, who did not wish to comment at this stage.
