Putin critic Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition leader dies in prison, news cause investigated

Posted on by

Alexei Navalny, one of Russia’s most fierce opposition leaders and a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin for the past decade, died in a prison in the Arctic Circle, according to Russian news agency TASS. Navalny was serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges that are widely believed to be politically motivated, British media website BBC reported. Late last year, he was transferred to an Arctic penal colony known for its harsh conditions.

The prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets district revealed that Navalny fell ill after taking a walk on Friday. According to a statement from prison officials, he “fell unconscious almost immediately”, the BBC reported. After the incident, an emergency medical team was immediately called. Doctors attempted to revive him but failed to revive him.

“Emergency doctors declared the prisoner dead. The cause of death is being established,” the prison service was quoted as saying.

Navalny’s lawyer Leonid Solovyov refrained from issuing immediate comment to Russian media. The circumstances surrounding Navalny’s death are currently under investigation.

The 47-year-old, widely considered a political prisoner, was known for his anti-corruption campaigns against the Russian government. His team reached out to the public primarily through YouTube and organized protests across the country. He published investigative materials against high-ranking Russian government officials and the ruling party United Russia.

Moscow said it had no information about the cause of Navalny’s death. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian President has been informed about the incident.

In December last year, Navalny went missing from a prison in the Vladimir region. He was serving a 30-year prison sentence on terrorism and fraud charges. He said it was the ruling party’s revenge on him for leading an anti-Kremlin movement in the 2010s, The Guardian reported. He also said that he would not be released as long as Putin remained in power.