KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFPRussia's most necessary opposition chief for the previous decade, Alexei Navalny, has died in an Arctic Circle jail, the jail service stated.
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 considered one of Russia's hardest penal colonies late final yr.
His spouse Julia has referred to as on the worldwide neighborhood “to assist punish this regime”.
One in every of his closest allies, the top of the Anti-Corruption Basis, Ivan Zhdanov, stated it was “extremely doubtless” that Navalny had been killed and “homicide had really taken place”.
The jail service in Russia's Yamalo-Nenets district the place Navalny is being held stated he was “feeling unhealthy” after a stroll on Friday.
He had “virtually instantly misplaced consciousness”, it stated in an announcement, including that an emergency medical group was instantly referred to as and tried to revive him, however with out success.
“The emergency medical doctors declared the prisoner lifeless. The causes of loss of life 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 residence to Russia's infamous KGB spy service.
Prosecutors warned Russians to not be a 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 loss of life, trying properly and laughing throughout a court docket listening to by way of 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 associates, all of his authorities know that they are going to be held accountable for what they've completed… and that day will come. sooner than you assume.”
Navalny's last Instagram post about his wife two days in the past he stated that there have been 1000’s of kilometers between them “however I really feel that you’re nearer each second”. He left behind two kids, Dasha, who’s finding out within the US and Zakhar, who remains 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 glad.”
Navalny's shut aide Leonid Volkov warned there was no strategy to verify what had occurred, however stated the assertion by jail authorities amounted to an admission that they’d killed him.
@teamnavalnyThere was minimal protection on Russia's state tv channels, though a report by RT prompt that Navalny had suffered a blood clot.
This was scoffed at by Moscow specialist Alexander Polupan, who had dealt with Navalny prior to now. He stated that some sort of analysis can solely be made by a autopsy examination.
Minutes after Navalny's loss of life was introduced by the jail service, the worldwide neighborhood hailed the braveness of Vladimir Putin's largest home opponent.
France stated he had paid together with his life for resisting Russian “oppression”, whereas Norway's overseas minister stated Russian authorities bore a significant accountability for his loss of life.
US President Joe Biden stated if the studies had been true, then Vladimir Putin was accountable: “What has occurred is but extra proof of Putin's brutality.”
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, stated merely that Navalny's loss of life had been “reported to the president”, who was on a go to to the town of Chelyabinsk. “Docs should one way or the other perceive this,” Mr. Peskov stated.
UK Overseas Secretary David Cameron stated “nobody needs to be in any doubt concerning the horrific nature of the Putin regime in Russia after what has simply occurred”.
Many 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 group 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.
ReutersOne other of his closest aides, Maria Pevchikh, stated it was clear how necessary Navalny had been: “What a huge accountability 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 as a consequence of alleged irregularities present in 1000’s of signatures submitted in assist of his candidacy.
Navalny, whose opposition started within the type of an anti-corruption marketing campaign, is the most recent 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 aircraft crash weeks after main his mercenaries in a armed rebellion.
Nevertheless, Navalny repeatedly laughed off his associates' 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 stated he had been taken on a 20-day journey round Russia, telling reporters throughout a video court docket look that his circumstances had been “a lot better” than in his former penal colony in Vladimir.
Nevertheless, he was repeatedly sentenced by his prisons to solitary confinement. His consultant Kira Yarmysh stated final month that he had spent greater than 280 days in solitary confinement.
Navalny wouldn’t be launched from jail till his 70s, as a consequence 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 eternally.
Russian human rights activist and journalist Eva Merkacheva stated 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 loss of life.
In such excessive circumstances medical doctors knew that such punishment was very dangerous to the human physique, so based on the legislation nobody might be given greater than 15 days in solitary confinement, she stated.
Alexei Navalny: Extra protection