picture supply, KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP
Alexei Navalny was probably the most outstanding Russian opposition chief of current occasions
Russia's most essential opposition chief for the previous decade, Alexei Navalny, has died in an Arctic Circle jail, the jail service mentioned.
President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critic, he was serving 19 years on prices of extremism that had been extensively seen as politically motivated.
Navalny was moved to one in every of Russia's hardest penal colonies late final 12 months.
His spouse Julia has known as on the worldwide neighborhood “to assist punish this regime”.
Certainly one of his closest allies, the pinnacle of the Anti-Corruption Basis, Ivan Zhdanov, mentioned it was “extremely doubtless” that Navalny had been killed and that a “homicide had truly taken place”.
The jail service in Russia's Yamalo-Nenets district the place Navalny is being held mentioned he was “feeling dangerous” after a stroll on Friday.
He had “nearly instantly misplaced consciousness”, it mentioned in an announcement, including that an emergency medical workforce was instantly known as and tried to revive him, however with out success.
“The emergency medical doctors declared the prisoner lifeless. The causes of demise are being decided.”
Hours later, a gentle stream of Muscovites laid flowers at a monument to victims of political repression throughout from the Lubyanka, as soon as house to Russia's infamous KGB spy service.
Regardless of warnings to not take part in protests, Muscovites laid flowers on Friday on the Solovetsky stone
Prosecutors warned Russians to not be part of any mass protests, and a number of other individuals had been arrested each in central Moscow and in different cities together with St Petersburg, Murmansk and Nizhny-Novgorod.
Navalny, 47, was final seen only a day earlier than his demise, wanting nicely and laughing throughout a court docket listening to through video hyperlink.
Yulia Navalnaya took the stage on the Munich Safety Convention in tears, warning that the information had solely come from unreliable state sources.
“But when it's true, I do know Putin, all of his allies, all of his pals, all of his authorities know that they are going to be held accountable for what they've accomplished… and that day will come. sooner than you assume.”
Navalny's last Instagram post about his wife two days in the past he mentioned that there have been 1000’s of kilometers between them “however I really feel that you’re nearer each second”. He left behind two youngsters, Dasha, who’s learning within the US and Zakhar, who continues to be in class.
His mom Lyudmila Navalnaya was quoted as saying: “I don't wish to hear any comfort. We noticed him in jail on the 12th. [February], in a gathering. He was alive, wholesome and completely happy.”
Navalny's shut aide Leonid Volkov warned there was no approach to verify what had occurred, however mentioned the assertion by jail authorities amounted to an admission that they’d killed him.
picture supply, @teamnavalny
Alexei Navalny was seen on Thursday throughout a court docket listening to through video hyperlink
There was minimal protection on Russia's state tv channels, though a report by RT steered that Navalny had suffered a blood clot.
This was scoffed at by Moscow specialist Alexander Polupan, who had dealt with Navalny up to now. He mentioned that some type of prognosis can solely be made by a autopsy examination.
Minutes after Navalny's demise was introduced by the jail service, the worldwide neighborhood hailed the braveness of Vladimir Putin's largest home opponent.
France mentioned he had paid along with his life for resisting Russian “oppression”, whereas Norway's international minister mentioned Russian authorities bore a serious duty for his demise.
US President Joe Biden mentioned if the stories had been true, then Vladimir Putin was accountable: “What has occurred is but extra proof of Putin's brutality.”
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, mentioned merely that Navalny's demise had been “reported to the president”, who was on a go to to the town of Chelyabinsk. “Docs should someway perceive this,” Mr. Peskov mentioned.
UK Overseas Secretary David Cameron mentioned “nobody ought to be in any doubt in regards to the horrific nature of the Putin regime in Russia after what has simply occurred”.
A lot of the critics of the Russian president have left Russia, however Alexei Navalny returned in January 2021, after months of medical remedy. In August 2020 he was poisoned on the finish of a visit to Siberia with a Novichok nerve agent.
His workforce managed to get him to Germany for specialist remedy and upon his return to Moscow he was instantly taken into custody. He was accompanied on the flight from Germany by his spouse Yulia Navalnaya, hugging her at passport management earlier than departing.
He would by no means depart jail once more for the subsequent 37 months.
Yulia Navalnaya final noticed her husband at massive at Moscow airport in January 2021
One other of his closest aides, Maria Pevchikh, mentioned it was clear how essential Navalny had been: “What a big duty rests on us… to hold on his work with dignity… and all the time stay as courageous and brave as he”
Navalny, who was 47, had lengthy sought to problem Vladimir Putin on the poll field however was barred from operating within the 2018 presidential election. Subsequent month, the Russian chief will stay unchallenged by any important opposition.
Anti-war candidate Boris Nadezhdin was barred from operating within the election because of alleged irregularities present in 1000’s of signatures submitted in help of his candidacy.
Navalny, whose opposition started within the type of an anti-corruption marketing campaign, is the newest in a string of outstanding Russian figures to die difficult Vladimir Putin's rule.
Opposition chief Boris Nemtsov was shot lifeless on a Moscow bridge a stone's throw from the Kremlin in 2015, and Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in August 2023 in an unexplained airplane crash weeks after main his mercenaries in a armed rebellion.
Watch: Alexei Navalny jokes in one in every of his newest appearances from an Arctic penal colony
Nonetheless, Navalny repeatedly laughed off his pals' issues about his well being. He was moved from a penal colony east of Moscow in December and was not seen for weeks till he reappeared at a penal colony within the Arctic city of Kharp.
Navalny mentioned he had been taken on a 20-day journey round Russia, telling reporters throughout a video court docket look that his situations had been “significantly better” than in his former penal colony in Vladimir.
Nonetheless, he was repeatedly sentenced by his prisons to solitary confinement. His consultant Kira Yarmysh mentioned final month that he had spent greater than 280 days in solitary confinement.
Navalny wouldn’t be launched from jail till his 70s, because of his most up-to-date conviction for extremism final August. It was his third jail sentence and supporters accused the Kremlin of making an attempt to silence him without end.
Russian human rights activist and journalist Eva Merkacheva mentioned on Friday that he had been positioned in solitary confinement a minimum of 27 occasions, saying it “couldn’t assist however play a task” in his demise.
In such excessive situations medical doctors knew that such punishment was very dangerous to the human physique, so in response to the regulation nobody might be given greater than 15 days in solitary confinement, she mentioned.