16/02/2024
📍Jailed Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny Dies, Russian Officials Say
Alexei Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died Friday in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence, Russia’s prison agency said. He was 47.
The news of Navalny’s death — less than a month before an election expected to 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.
People laid flowers at monuments to victims of Soviet-era political repression in some Russian cities, but there was no immediate indication that Navalny’s death— which will deal a heavy blow to the beleaguered and fractured opposition — would spark large protests.
Navalny felt unwell after a walk Friday, according to the Federal Penitentiary Service, and lost consciousness. An ambulance arrived, but he could not be revived. The service said the cause of death was "being established."
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 had deteriorated recently and the cause of death may never be known, but many world leaders said they held Russian authorities ultimately responsible for his death.
If confirmed, "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,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said while at a conference in Germany.