Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has died, state media reported, citing the prison service of the region where he had been serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism.
There was no immediate confirmation of the 47-year-old’s death from his team. Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said his lawyer was travelling to the remote prison colony north of the Arctic Circle.
The Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is spreading the news of Alexey Navalny's death in IK-3. We have no confirmation of this yet. Alexey's lawyer is currently on his way to Kharp. As soon as we have some information, we will report on…
— Кира Ярмыш (@Kira_Yarmysh) February 16, 2024
Following a walk, Navalny “felt bad,” according to a federal prison service statement cited by state media on Friday. He “almost immediately” lost consciousness.
Navalny was transferred to the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, located in the Yamalo-Nenets region approximately 1,900 km (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow, in December.
The “special regime” or “Polar Wolf” colony is among the harshest in Russia’s prison system and is located in a place with severe winters. Most inmates have been convicted of grave crimes. Kharp is about 100km (60 miles) from Vorkuta, whose coal mines were part of the Soviet gulag camp system.
“Medical staff arrived immediately, and an ambulance team was called,” the prison service said. “Resuscitation measures were carried out, which did not yield positive results. Paramedics confirmed the death of the convict. The causes of death are being established.”
The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had been informed of Navalny’s death.
Navalny aide Leonid Volkov posted on X: “Russian authorities publish a confession that they killed Alexei Navalny in prison. We do not have any way to confirm it or to prove this isn’t true.”
Lyudmila Navalnaya, Navalny’s mother, was quoted by Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta as saying that her son had been “alive, healthy and happy” when she last saw him on February 12.
“I don’t want to hear any condolences. We saw him in prison on the [February] 12, in a meeting. He was alive, healthy and happy,” she wrote in a Facebook post on Friday.
During a press conference at the Munich Security Summit, which was attended by world leaders and officials, Yulia Navalny, the wife of Navalny, stated that if the news of her husband’s death was confirmed, Putin and his associates should face consequences.
She made a plea to the world community to unite in opposition to Moscow’s “horrific regime.”
In statements released, numerous world leaders said that they believed Russia was to blame for Navalny’s detention and eventual death because he had “paid for his courage with his life” by defying Putin.
In response to the news, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, stated that it was “obvious” that Putin had killed Navalny.
“Like thousands of others who have been tortured,” he said, adding that this demonstrates why the Russian leader must be made to “lose everything and held accountable for his actions”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said that Navalny’s death “only underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built. Russia is responsible for this.”
However, Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, wrote on her Telegram channel that the West has already arrived at “conclusions” without forensic evidence.
She said the immediate reactions “in the form of direct accusations against Russia are self-revealing”.
Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova said that the prison service reported Navalny’s death in colony number 3 which is “a very, very harsh prison”, adding that “his health has been pretty bad lately”.
An investigation is underway, and the official cause of death has not yet been disclosed, according to Shapovalova.
Since returning to Moscow in January 2021, after recovering in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he attributed to the Kremlin, Navalny, a fervent opponent of Putin, has been imprisoned.
Putin has been under increasing fire since his death, which came less than a month before elections in Russia that will extend his six-year term in office, as the leader has clamped down on domestic opposition.
Read More
Indian-Origin Techie Accused in US Murder-Suicide
