Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny dies in prison

Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny has died in prison at the age of 47, the state news agency RIA Novosti reports. The well-known dissident felt unwell after a walk and almost immediately lost consciousness, according to the agency, which cites the department of the Federal Prison Service for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. Doctors confirmed the death of the politician, RIA stated.

According to a penitentiary service statement, doctors arrived quickly and “an ambulance was called.” “All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, but they were unsuccessful. The emergency health services confirmed the death of the prisoner. The causes of death are being determined,” the statement added.

In December, the dissident’s associates set alarm bells ringing when they lost contact with him for almost three weeks, during which time his whereabouts were unknown. On December 25 his spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, reported that he had been transferred to the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region, which is notorious for long and severe winters and some 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow. The prison, known as the Polar Wolf Colony, is considered one of the harshest in Russia and is intended for prisoners convicted of serious crimes. It was founded in the 1960s as part of the Soviet forced labor camp gulag system.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Vladimir Putin was informed of Navalny’s death and the prison service was looking into the death in line with standard procedures.

Responding to the possibility that the opposition leader had died due to a blood clot, as some Russian media have claimed, Peskov said that “doctors will figure it out.”

Yarmysh said that the activist’s lawyers are on their way to the prison. “We have no confirmation of this yet,” she added, referring to reports of Navalny’s death.

In early 2023, a group of more than 170 doctors addressed a letter to Putin expressing their concern. “The conditions of detention and the physical appearance of Alexei Navalny cause us great concern for his life and health,” they said. His lawyers then denounced that the activist was not receiving medicine and was only permitted to leave his cell for an hour and a half per day.

Navalny was the most prominent figure among the Russian opposition. He was sentenced to nine years in March 2022 in a “special regime” penal colony, the highest security level in the Russian prison system, in a fraud case that his supporters claim was fabricated by the Kremlin. Prosecutors accused him of stealing some $4.7 million in donations given to his organizations, which have now been banned by the Russian government, including his anti-corruption foundation.

On August 4, 2023, he was handed a 19-year sentence for supporting extremism. That sentence was added to the previous one and another of 2.5 years issued in 2021 for diversion of funds in the so-called Kirovles case, which dates to 2013. The oppositionist’s defense, as well as his supporters, claim that the latter case was fabricated to keep Navalny away from the political sphere for an even longer period. Moreover, the declaration of his political movement as “extremist” intensified his political isolation.

The politician was detained upon his return to Moscow in January 2021 for violating parole after he was hospitalized in Germany after being poisoned, in which Western intelligence services believe the Kremlin was involved. Despite his condition, the Russian judiciary considered that he still had to comply with the terms of probation in a case that the European Court of Human Rights described as an “arbitrary process.”

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