The most prominent critic of the Russian leadership, Alexei Navalny, is apparently dead. Russian media report this with reference to the prison administration in the northern Russian region of Yamal-Nenets. The 47-year-old has served years of imprisonment in a penal colony. Navalny was convicted, among other things, of extremism; he has always denied the accusation. His political movement was banned and close associates were imprisoned or fled abroad.
On Friday evening, Navalny’s employees classified his death as credible. It is assumed that “it most likely happened that Alexei Navalny was killed,” said the exiled director of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, Ivan Zhdanov, during a live broadcast on YouTube. Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysch sat at his side. “We will not tell you lies that there is any hope that tomorrow it will turn out that this is not true,” said Zhdanov, “such a chance is slim.”
Navalny’s team initially said it had not yet received any confirmation of his death. His lawyer Leonid Solovyov told the Kremlin-critical newspaper Novaya Gazeta: “I don’t comment at all on the decision of Alexei Navalny’s family.”
The Kremlin says it has no information about the cause of the death. The prison authorities are conducting all investigations, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed of Navalny’s death, according to the Tass news agency.
The prison said Navalny “felt unwell” after walking outside
According to the prison administration of the Siberian penal colony, Navalny “felt unwell” after walking outdoors on Friday and “almost immediately lost consciousness.” Medical personnel were called, but they were unable to revive Navalny. The cause of death is currently being determined.
Navalny was sentenced to a total of 19 years in a camp for alleged “extremism,” among other things. Internationally, however, the politician, who narrowly survived an assassination attempt with the nerve agent Novichok in 2020, is classified as a political prisoner. Human rights organizations have long called for Navalny’s release. After being treated in Germany following the poison attack, Navalny returned to Russia on January 17, 2021 – and was arrested at the airport.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) expressed his condolences to Navalny’s family. “We are very sad, we are with the family, the wife and the child, and all the relatives and friends,” he said in Berlin. The dissident’s death is “something completely terrible” and also serves as a sign of how Russia has changed. “After the hopeful developments towards democracy that took place a long time ago, this is no longer a democracy,” he said. French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X: “In today’s Russia, free spirits are put in the gulag and sentenced to death.”
Navalny’s wife Julija Navalnaya spoke at the Munich Security Conference on Friday afternoon and called on the world to fight against the Russian government. “The regime should take responsibility,” she said about the news of her husband’s death.
Navalny repeatedly filed lawsuits against the prison system for violating his rights
The politician, who was classified as a political prisoner, had already disappeared for several weeks last December. It later emerged that the justice system had moved him from the European part of Russia to a prison camp in the far north of Siberia. Navalny suspected that he should be as isolated as possible there before the upcoming presidential election in March.
The Siberian prison is considered one of the harshest in Russia. In January, Navalny called for better prison conditions at a court hearing. Among other things, the meal breaks are too short. “I’m given two cups of boiling water and two pieces of disgusting bread. I want to drink this boiling water normally and eat this bread. I have ten minutes to eat. And I’m forced to choke on this boiling water,” he lamented at the time and appeared emaciated. Last but not least, he used the court appearances to scathingly criticize Putin’s authoritarian system and Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
Recently he was no longer involved in the negotiations. The USA, the EU and the federal government have repeatedly expressed concern in recent weeks and called on the Russian leadership to provide information about Navalny’s whereabouts. However, Russia rejected this as interference in its internal affairs.