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.
The Russian authorities are now, I shit you not, saying @navalny’s death was caused by “sudden death syndrome.” If Alexey heard it, he’d make some amazing jokes about it. https://t.co/FUjPeI5jYG
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) February 17, 2024
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.
Ah yes sudden death syndrome. Well, case closed I guess https://t.co/kG8v29kIvn
— Thor Benson (@thor_benson) February 17, 2024
According to Russia, Navalny died of "sudden death syndrome," a peculiar disease that strikes opponents of Vladimir Putin, who appears to be the ungracious "host" of this virus. https://t.co/v8lhcuQuUe
— Alex Gibney (@alexgibneyfilm) February 17, 2024
The Kremlin can't even get their story straight. The initial announcement of "blood clot" was changed to "sudden death syndrome". Then changed to "unknown" and body sent to a "repeat expertise".
Just a reminder that the "repeat expertise" guys in Russia are also the poisoners. https://t.co/6ZDBzl8b52— Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) February 17, 2024
Sudden death syndrome was actually a well known phenomenon under the Stalinist Terror, Julia.
The aetiology was a ‘sudden’ bullet to the back of the head. https://t.co/6yIEK2l0R2
— Ari Costello (@AriCostello) February 17, 2024
Some medical practitioners called BS on “sudden death syndrome.”
BTW, just to be sure, I asked my mother, a board-certified pathologist, whether “sudden death syndrome” is a real thing. “No,” she said. “Only for babies.” In adults, there is sudden cardiac death, not “sudden death syndrome.” https://t.co/L6I4wFpbYQ
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) February 17, 2024
There were, of course, morbid jokes.
Others to have died from the erstwhile “sudden death syndrome”:
Abraham Lincoln
Martin Luther King Jr
Nicole Brown Simpson https://t.co/wqanN2HRcT— Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) February 17, 2024
Why didn’t I think of “sudden death syndrome” sooner?
— Darth Putin (@DarthPutinKGB) February 17, 2024
Damn i hate when sudden death syndrome hits. pic.twitter.com/WRLPhPZ0Zc
— Joe Kassabian (@JoeKassabian) February 17, 2024
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)