Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died on Friday after collapsing and losing consciousness at the penal colony north of the Arctic Circle where he was serving a long jail term, the Russian prison service said.
Navalny, by far Russia’s most famous opposition leader, rose to prominence more than a decade ago by lampooning the elite class round President Vladimir Putin and voicing allegations of corruption on a vast scale. He was 47.
Seen as President Vladimir Putin’s most vociferous critic, Navalny was serving a 19-year jail term for offences widely considered politically motivated.
He was moved to an Arctic penal colony, considered one of the toughest jails, late last year.
The prison service in the Yamalo-Nenets district said he had “felt unwell” after a walk on Friday.
He had “almost immediately lost consciousness”, it said in a statement, adding that an emergency medical team had immediately been called and tried to resuscitate him but without success.
“The emergency doctors declared the prisoner dead. Cause of death is being established.”
All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, which did not yield positive results. Doctors of the ambulance stated the death of the convict.”
“The causes of death are being established.”
Navalny’s lawyer Leonid Solovyov told Russian media he would not be commenting yet.
Putin has been told about Navalny’s death, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Navalny earned admiration from Russia’s disparate opposition for voluntarily returning to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he had been treated for what Western laboratory tests showed was an attempt to poison him with a nerve agent.
Navalny said at the time that he was poisoned in Siberia in August 2020. The Kremlin denied trying to kill him and said there was no evidence he was poisoned with a nerve agent.
By Agencies
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