The widow of deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is pushing back on a new report from investigators claiming he died as a result of an irregular heartbeat and a combination of diseases, calling the findings a “rather pathetic attempt to hide what happened — a murder.” 

The declaration comes six months after Navalny – a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin – died at a penal colony in Siberia. Russian officials at the time said Navalny reported feeling unwell following a walk before losing consciousness and dying.   

Investigators are now claiming in a report shared Wednesday by Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya that the 47-year-old passed away after suffering from a variety of ailments, including arrhythmia and cholecystitis, the swelling of a gall bladder.  

“The truth is that this is not a diagnosis, not the results of a test, but a mockery. This is another rather pathetic attempt to hide what happened — a murder,” Navalnaya wrote on Navalny’s official website. “And everyone who writes these papers, writes these false reports — are accomplices to this murder.” 

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“I showed this diagnosis to my doctors. They all came to the same conclusion: they opened it up, examined it, but couldn’t find anything — no blood clot, no signs of a heart attack or stroke either,” she added. “So they wrote about ‘arrhythmia’ to at least write something. Because people don’t just die like that.” 

“All these chronic diseases, like the gastroduodenitis and pancreatitis listed by the investigator… Well, excuse me, every third person in Russia has such diseases. Suddenly, in an hour, you don’t die from such things. But even if we assume that they existed… why weren’t they diagnosed in the numerous colonies where Alexei was? Why wasn’t he treated? Why was such a sick person sent to a punishment cell and kept there for months?” Navalnaya continued. 

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Pool Photo via AP)

“There can be one explanation for this. The only one. They killed him, and now they are trying to cover up the tracks as much as possible,” she said. 

“If Putin and his obliging comrades… think that we will now shrug our shoulders and say ‘well, okay, so no’ — they are deeply mistaken. The lawyers will appeal every such document. We will demand that a criminal case be opened,” Navalnaya concluded. “I demand that they hand over to us all the medical documents, including the autopsy report… and also that they hand over all of Alexei’s personal belongings.” 

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny appeared in court via video link on Thursday, Feb. 15, a day before his reported death at a penal colony in northern Russia. (Russian Federal Penitentiary Service/SOTAvision/AP)

In February, President Biden said President Biden said there is “no doubt” that Navalny’s death was a “consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.” 

Two French fighter jet pilots were killed after their Rafale warplane collided with another and crashed in northeastern France, according to the French military.

The pilot of the other jet ejected and suffered minor injuries.

The two aircraft collided Wednesday during a combat manoeuvre in the Vosges region near the town of Colombey-les-Belles, the French Defence Ministry said in a statement.

The pilots who were killed were an instructor and a trainee on a training mission, it said.

Military and judicial investigations are underway into the causes of the accident.

The pilot of one Rafale was found alive soon after the crash, but it took several hours of searching by law enforcement in the wooded region to find the two pilots of the other jet.

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences in a post on social network X.

“We learn with sadness the death of Captain Sébastien Mabire and Lieutenant Matthis Laurens in an air accident in a Rafale training mission,” Macron said.

“The nation shares the grief of their families and brothers in arms at Air Base 113 in Saint-Dizier,” he added.

Accidents involving the French-made Rafale supersonic jet are very uncommon. Just two crashes — one in 2007 and another in 2009 — have occurred since its introduction in 2001.

France has ordered around 230 Rafale fighter jets, with 42 expected to be produced starting in 2027. Other operators include Greece, Croatia, Egypt, India and the UAE.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is taking a victory lap after federal officials inked deals with drug companies to lower the price for 10 of Medicare’s most popular and costliest drugs, but shared few immediate details about the new price older Americans will pay when they fill those prescriptions.

White House officials said Wednesday night they expect U.S. taxpayers to save $6 billion on the new prices, while older Americans could save roughly $1.5 billion on their medications. Those projections, however, were based on dated estimates and the administration shared no details as to how they arrived at the figures.

Nonetheless, the newly negotiated prices — still elusive to the public as of early Thursday morning — will impact the price of drugs used by millions of older Americans to help manage diabetes, blood cancers and prevent heart failure or blood clots.

The drugs include the blood thinners Xarelto and Eliquis and diabetes drugs Jardiance and Januvia. Medicare spent $50 billion covering the drugs last year.

It’s a landmark deal for the Medicare program, which provides health care coverage for more than 67 million older and disabled Americans. For decades, the federal government had been barred from bartering with pharmaceutical companies over the price of their drugs, even though it’s a routine process for private insurers.

“This meant that drug companies could basically charge whatever they want for life-saving treatments people rely on, and all Americans paid the price,” White House adviser Neera Tanden told reporters in a Wednesday night call.

The drug deals will become a focal point for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, especially since she cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the law. She will join President Joe Biden Thursday to announce the drug prices, their first joint speaking appearance since she replaced him at the top of the Democratic ticket, as they both struggle to convince voters that costs will trend down after years of above-normal inflation.

The pair last appeared publicly together to welcome back to the U.S. Americans detained in Russia who were freed as part of a massive prisoner swap earlier this month.

Powerful pharmaceutical companies unsuccessfully tried to file lawsuits to stop the negotiations, which became law in 2022, when a Democratic-controlled Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, overhauling several Medicare prescription drug regulations. But executives of those companies have also hinted in recent weeks during earnings calls that they don’t expect the negotiations to impact their bottom line.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversaw the dealmaking, is expected to release the final drug prices later Thursday. The new prices won’t go into effect until 2026. Next year, the Department of Health and Human Services can select another 15 drugs for price negotiations.

Before the drug prices were finalized, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the negotiations could save the federal government $25 billion in 2031.

The official event comes a day before Harris is set to unveil part of her economic agenda on Friday in North Carolina, where she was aiming to roll out other ways she plans to help cut costs and boost incomes for the middle class.