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Russian Authorities Claimed Aleksei Navalny Died From ‘Sudden Death Syndrome,’ And People Aren’t Buying It

Alexei Navalny
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On Friday the world learned about the mysterious death of Aleksei Navalny, one of Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics. For more than a decade, the activist and opposition leader had been one of the largest thorns in the side of the Russian president, enduring multiple arrests, even a near-fatal poisoning. His death immediately struck many as fishy, and after authorities belatedly provided an alleged cause of death, things only got fishier.

Per Reuters, Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila, said that she was told her son had died from what they called “sudden death syndrome.”

What is “sudden death syndrome”? Is it even a real medical term? It is, sort of. According to Medical News Today, it’s an “umbrella term for many biological scenarios leading to quick-onset and unforeseen mortality.” That could include a variety of cardiac syndromes that cause cardiac arrest or death.

And yet, given that Russian authorities had had a habit of jailing Navalny — he died in a penal colony in the Arctic — some weren’t exactly buying the alleged cause of death.

Some medical practitioners called BS on “sudden death syndrome.”

There were, of course, morbid jokes.

Navalny’s mother had braved Arctic temperatures to journey to the penal colony where her son had died. Though she was given the alleged cause of death, the body, she was told, had been moved to a nearby town. When she arrived there, she was told the morgue had been closed. Said morgue later claimed it did not have his body, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.

News of Navalny’s death came as tensions arise between the U.S. and Russia. The House, as lorded over by MAGA Speaker Mike Johnson, has been refusing to vote on a bill that included further funding for Ukraine, one that had been passed easily in the Senate. What’s more, fired Fox News star Tucker Carlson made a big deal out of a whirlwind trip to Moscow, which included a much-maligned sitdown with Putin that even Putin himself thought was a waste of time.

(Via Reuters)