Alexei Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died yesterday in the arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence, Russia’s prison agency said. He was 47.
The stunning news of Navalny’s death — less than a month before an election that would give Putin another six years in power — brought renewed criticism and outrage directed at the Kremlin leader who has cracked down on all opposition at home.
Navalny felt unwell after a walk and lost consciousness, the Federal Penitentiary Service said. An ambulance arrived, but paramedics failed to revive him. The service said the cause of death was “being established.”
Photo: Reuters
Navalny had been behind bars since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. Since then, he received three prison sentences, all of which he rejected as politically motivated.
Praise for Navalny’s bravery poured in from Western leaders and others who have opposed Putin’s rule. The opposition leader’s health has deteriorated recently and the cause of death remains unknown, but many world leaders said they held Russian authorities ultimately responsible for his death.
“His death in a Russian prison and the fixation and fear of one man only underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built. Russia is responsible for this,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said while at a conference in Germany.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Navalny “has probably now paid for this courage with his life.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin was informed of Navalny’s death.
The opposition leader’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, wrote on X that the team had no confirmation yet.
Shortly after the death was reported, the Russian SOTA social media channel shared images of the opposition politician reportedly in court yesterday. In the footage, Navalny is seen standing up and is laughing and joking with the judge via video link.
Navalny was moved in December from a prison in central Russia to a “special regime” penal colony — the highest security level of prisons in the country — above the Artic Circle.
His allies decried the transfer to a colony in the town of Kharp, in a region about 1,900km northeast of Moscow, as yet another attempt to force Navalny into silence.
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