A promotion whose timing is intriguing.
Just three days after the death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny in a penal colony in Siberia, the deputy head of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) was awarded the rank of colonel general of the internal service by President Vladimir Putin.
Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, shared on his X account this Tuesday a screenshot of a document where Valery Boyarinev signs with his new title.
His promotion is “Putin’s pure and simple reward for torture,” he writes.
According to him, Valery Boyarinev was personally involved in the acts of torture against the opponent.
Let's see what the paint is and where Putin is.
Зам главы ФСИН Бояринев, который курировал пытки над Алексеем Навальн ым, получил звание генерал-полковника от Путина через три дня после уби йства.
pic.twitter.com/szqagGTGdn
— Ivan Zhdanov (@ioannZH) February 20, 2024
The decree announcing his promotion can be consulted on the website of the legal information portal, the equivalent of the Russian Official Journal.
Valery Boyarinev is not the only one to have been promoted.
The first chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, was decorated with the same title.
Involved in acts of torture
According to Russian independent media Sota and Novaya Gazeta, Valery Boyarinev, 53, has held the position of first deputy of the FSIN since July 2022. But he has worked for the Russian prison service for more than ten years.
According to Gulagu.net, Ukrainian prisoners were tortured under his supervision, extracting confessions from them in cases of civilian executions.
According to information from Sota, Valery Boyarinev could have been involved in the torture of Alexei Navalny, in particular by preventing him from falling asleep and eating.
The causes of his death, which occurred on Friday, are still not known and his family has still not been able to see his body.
According to Moscow, an investigation is “ongoing”.
Investigators have informed Alexeï Navalny's relatives that they will keep the body for “at least 14 days” to examine it.
For the family, who accuses the Kremlin of being at the origin of the death of the opponent, the Russian authorities are seeking to “cover their tracks”.