Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny dies in prison, confirms prison service

Russia’s prominent opposition figure of the past decade, Alexei Navalny, has died in prison located inside the Arctic Circle, confirmed by the prison service as reported in BBC.

Navalny, known as President Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken critic, was serving a 19-year sentence for charges widely perceived as politically motivated. He was transferred to the Arctic penal colony last year, which is known for its harsh conditions.

According to the prison service in the Yamalo-Nenets district, Navalny reported feeling unwell after a walk on Friday. Subsequently, he lost consciousness almost immediately. Despite efforts by an emergency medical team to resuscitate him, they were unable to revive him.

He had “almost immediately lost consciousness”, the prison service said in a statement. “The emergency doctors declared the prisoner dead. Cause of death is being established,” it added.

Navalny’s lawyer, Leonid Solovyov, refrained from giving comments to Russian media at this time. However, Navalny’s close aide, Leonid Volkov, posted on X, expressing skepticism regarding the Russian authorities’ claim of Navalny’s death in prison. Volkov’s post read, “Russian authorities publish a confession that they killed Alexey Navalny in prison. We do not have any way to confirm it or to prove this isn’t true.”

The 47-year-old was Russia’s foremost opposition figure, who garnered widespread support for his outspoken stance against corruption within Vladimir Putin’s administration.

Navalny’s activism led to his imprisonment in early 2021 upon his return to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering from a near-lethal poisoning incident involving Novichok, a potent Soviet-era nerve agent.

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