Alexei Navalny. File.
| Photo Credit: AP
Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is dead, the prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region where he had been serving his sentence said on February 16.
Navalny, 47, was one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe and had exposed official corruption and organised major anti-Kremlin protests. Mr. Putin has been told of the death of Navalny, state news agency TASS reported.
In a statement published on its website, the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District said that Navalny “felt unwell” after a walk on Friday, and “almost immediately lost consciousness”.
It said that medical staff had been called, but that they were unable to resuscitate Navalny. It said the reason of death was being established. Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a procedural probe into the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a penal colony, the Investigative Committee said.
Meanwhile, the press secretary of Navalny said on the X social media platform on Friday that she was unable to confirm his death, which was reported by the country’s prison service earlier.
Kira Yarmysh said that Navalny’s lawyer was travelling to the site of the prison where he had been serving his sentence.
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. Before his arrest, he campaigned against official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests.
He has since received three prison terms, rejecting all the charges against him as politically motivated. Until December 2023, Navalny was serving time at Penal Colony No. 6 in the Vladimir region, and officials there regularly placed him in a punishment cell for alleged minor infractions. He spent months in isolation.
‘Russia responsible for Navalny’s death’: World leaders react
Navalny has paid with his life for his ‘resistance to a system of oppression’, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said in comments on the death of the famous Russian political activist. “His death in a penal colony reminds us of the reality of Vladimir Putin’s regime”, said Sejourne.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said on X on Friday that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was “brutally murdered by the Kremlin”.
“Whatever your thoughts about Alexei Navalny as the politician, he was just brutally murdered by the Kremlin. That’s a fact and that is something one should know about the true nature of Russia’s current regime. My condolences to the family and friends,” he wrote.
