An organizer of mass protests against the ruling party, Mr. Navalny’s sentencing was seen as punishment for his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia’s most prominent political opposition leader and ardent critic of the Putin government, Alexei Navalny, collapsed and died on Friday, Feb. 16, in an Arctic penal colony where he was serving an extended jail term.
Mr. Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, was vocal about official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests. He has been incarcerated since January 2021 following his return to Moscow from Germany where he was recuperating from a nerve agent poisoning. Mr. Navalny accused the Kremlin of the poisoning which was done using Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent.
After his return, he was served with three prison sentences, totaling more than 30 years.
According to Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service, Mr. Navalny felt unwell after a walk at the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, about 1,900 kilometers (1,181 miles) northeast of Moscow into the Arctic Circle. He lost consciousness almost immediately.
“All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, which did not yield positive results,” the prison service said, adding that causes of death were being established.
Mr. Putin has been informed about the death, said the Kremlin. The death has been condemned by Mr. Navalny’s supporters and some Western leaders.
Allies of Mr. Navalny said they could not confirm he was dead, but that if he was, then they believed he had been killed.
“Alexei Navalny paid with his life for his resistance to a system of oppression,” France’s Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said. “His death in a penal colony reminds us of the reality of Vladimir Putin’s regime.”
The death happened as Mr. Navalny’s lawyer was on his way to the prison in Kharp.
Mr. Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said she had no confirmation that he was dead.
“My sincere belief is that it was the conditions of detention that led to Navalny’s death,” Russian newspaper editor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov told Reuters. “His sentence was supplemented by murder.”
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