Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent political opposition leader and ardent critic of the Putin government, collapsed and died on Feb. 16 in an Arctic penal colony, where he was serving an extended prison term.
Mr. Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, was vocal about official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests. He has been incarcerated since January 2021 following his return to Moscow from Germany, where he was recuperating from a nerve agent poisoning.
Mr. Navalny accused the Kremlin of the poisoning, which was done using Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent.
After his return, he received three prison sentences totaling more than 30 years.
According to Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service, Mr. Navalny felt unwell after a walk at the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, about 1,900 kilometers (1,181 miles) northeast of Moscow inside the Arctic Circle. He lost consciousness almost immediately.
“All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, which did not yield positive results,” the prison service stated, noting that causes of death were being established.
Mr. Putin has been informed about the death, according to the Kremlin. The death has been condemned by Mr. Navalny’s supporters and some Western leaders.
Allies of Mr. Navalny said they couldn’t confirm he was dead but that if he was, they believed he had been killed.
“Alexei Navalny paid with his life for his resistance to a system of oppression,” French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said. “His death in a penal colony reminds us of the reality of Vladimir Putin’s regime.”
The death occurred as Mr. Navalny’s lawyer was on his way to the prison in Kharp. Mr. Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said she had no confirmation that he was dead.
“My sincere belief is that it was the conditions of detention that led to Navalny’s death,” Russian newspaper editor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov told Reuters. “His sentence was supplemented by murder.”
Campaign Against Putin
In December 2016, Mr. Navalny announced his presidential candidacy for the 2018 elections, setting up campaign offices from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad. However, the Central Election Committee of the Russian Federation barred him from running because of a criminal conviction.Mr. Navalny had claimed that the conviction was a trumped-up charge against him to keep him out of politics. Russian authorities refrained from mentioning his name in public to keep his profile subdued within the local population.
After entering politics in 2008, he was popular among Russian youth. He rose to prominence following his anti-corruption investigations into members of the Russian elite, such as Dmitry Medvedev, a former president, prime minister, and close ally of Mr. Putin.
Mr. Navalny focused his investigative efforts on Mr. Putin’s inner circle. He identified real estate assets of the Russian president such as a personal palace built on the Black Sea along with mansions for Mr. Medvedev.
Mr. Navalny was arrested more than 10 times and placed under custody for hundreds of days. In 2011, he was locked up for 15 days following protests against alleged vote-rigging by Mr. Putin’s United Russia party in parliamentary elections. In 2013, he was detained and jailed on embezzlement charges.
In August 2020, Mr. Navalny was poisoned at an airport cafe. He fell ill during the flight to Moscow from the Russian town of Tomsk, The plane made an urgent landing but Mr. Navalny had fallen into a coma.
After recovering, he was arrested in 2021 on a parole violation charge and sentenced to a series of jail terms, which he claimed were retaliation against him.
The Kremlin had dismissed Mr. Navalny’s claims of corruption and Mr. Putin’s personal wealth. Mr. Navalny’s allies have fled Russia and are now based in various European nations.
Russian officials cast Mr. Navalny as an extremist who was a puppet of the U.S. CIA intelligence agency, which they say is intent on trying to sow the seeds of revolution to weaken Russia and make it a client state of the West.
Reactions to Death
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters he was “deeply saddened and concerned” about the reports of Mr. Navalny’s death.“All the facts have to be established and Russia has serious questions to answer,” he said.
“Alexei Navalny has been a strong voice for freedom, for democracy, for many years, and NATO and NATO allies have called for his immediate release for a long time.”
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told NPR in an interview, “If it’s confirmed, it is a terrible tragedy, and given the Russian government’s long and sordid history of doing harm to its opponents, it raises real and obvious questions about what happened here.”
At a joint press conference in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was “obvious” that Mr. Navalny was killed.
“Putin does not care who dies as long as he stays in his position,” Mr. Zelenskyy said.
Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Deeply saddened by the news of the death in prison by Alexei Navalny. The Russian Government bears a heavy responsibility.”
Mr. Séjourné said on X: “Alexei Navalny paid with his life for his resistance to a system of oppression. His death in a penal colony reminds us of the reality of Vladimir Putin’s regime. To his family, his loved ones, and the Russian people, France presents its condolences.”
Mr. Muratov said that Mr. Navalny’s death was “murder.”
“Whatever your thoughts about Alexei Navalny as the politician, he was just brutally murdered by the Kremlin,” Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said on X. ‘That’s a fact and that is something one should know about the true nature of Russia’s current regime. My condolences to the family and friends.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Mr. Navalny’s death was “terrible news.”
“As the fiercest advocate for Russian democracy, Alexei Navalny demonstrated incredible courage throughout his life,“ he said. ”My thoughts are with his wife and the people of Russia, for whom this is a huge tragedy.”
In response to comments from political leaders on Mr. Navalny’s death, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said: “The instant reaction of NATO leaders to the news of Alexey Navalny’s demise in the form of direct accusations vs Russia is self-exposing.
“No forensic medical examination data is available, yet the West has already voiced its ‘conclusions.’”
In addition to his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, Mr. Navalny is survived by a son and a daughter.
