Published16. February 2024, 12:32
Russia: Alexeï Navalny is dead: discomfort after a walk, according to Moscow
The Russian opponent of Vladimir Putin was serving a nineteen-year prison sentence for “extremism”.
Alexei Navalny has died.
AFP
The Kremlin’s number one opponent, Alexeï Navalny, died on Friday, according to the authorities, in his Arctic prison, a death which comes one month before the presidential election which should once again cement the power of Vladimir Putin.
His disappearance at the age of 47, after three years of detention and a poisoning for which he blamed the government, deprives an already bloodless opposition of its figurehead. The Russian authorities have in fact orchestrated a merciless repression of all its detractors, particularly since the start of the assault on Ukraine two years ago.
The opponent’s wife, Yulia Navalnaïa, called on the international community to hold Vladimir Putin “personally responsible” for the death of her husband.
Moscow authorities have warned residents of the Russian capital against any “unauthorized” demonstrations.
Brief press release
The Russian authorities have provided almost no details on the conditions of Alexeï Navalny’s death, limiting themselves to a terse press release to ensure that they have done everything to resuscitate this man whose health was weakened by his poisoning and his imprisonment, after feeling unwell. .
“On February 16, 2024, in penitentiary center No. 3, prisoner Navalny AA felt unwell after a walk and almost immediately lost consciousness,” the FSIN (Russian Penitentiary Service) of the Yamal Arctic region said, assuring that emergency services had tried to save him.
“All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out but did not produce a positive result. Emergency doctors pronounced the patient dead. The causes of death are being established,” he said in this press release.
The hospital next to the prison, in the town of Labytnangui, assured that rescuers were sent to the scene within seven minutes after the prison camp was called.
“The doctors who arrived on site continued the resuscitation operations that had already been carried out by the prison doctors. They chased them for more than 30 minutes. However, the patient died,” he told Russian news agencies.
The state news agency Ria Novosti reported on Friday that Alexei Navalny had participated by video the day before in two hearings before a court in the Vladimir region and that he had not complained about his health.
His mother, Lyoudmila Navalnaïa, claimed to have seen her son on February 12 in his penal colony and that he was then “in good health and in a happy mood”, according to a message on Facebook cited by the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
Convicted of “extremism”
Alexeï Navalny was serving a 19-year prison sentence for “extremism” in a remote Arctic colony, in very difficult conditions. The multiple trials brought against him had been widely denounced as political and a way of punishing him for his opposition to Vladimir Putin.
The opponent’s supporters were not informed of his death in prison, said his spokesperson Kira Iarmich, specifying that one of their lawyers was going there.
The Russian head of state, traveling in the Urals on Friday, “is informed”, declared his spokesperson Dmitri Peskov, but did not react. He added that the prison services were carrying out “verifications” and “clarifications” on the cause of death.
Death mentioned by Rossiya 24
Russian television reported the death in a short story shortly after the Rossiya 24 channel broadcast, apparently delayed, a question-and-answer session with students and workers alongside Mr. Putin at during a factory visit.
At various hearings in trials in which he participated by video in recent months, Alexeï Navalny, a tall blond with piercing blue eyes, appeared thin and aged.
Poisoned in 2020
He had a series of health problems linked to a hunger strike and the poisoning he suffered in 2020 and which he miraculously survived.
Prison had not dampened Alexeï Navalny’s determination. During the hearings of his various trials and in messages broadcast through his team, he never stopped insulting Vladimir Putin.
In his trial for “extremism”, he castigated “the stupidest and most senseless war of the 21st century”, referring to the Russian offensive in Ukraine. In his messages, he was ironic about the bullying that the prison administration subjected him to.
“Hope is dead”
In Moscow, young people interviewed by AFP said they were distraught after his death. Valeria, a 28-year-old tourist guide, believes that Alexei Navalny was “a symbol of hope for a better future for Russia”. “I have the impression that with his death, this hope dies too.”
In a message on February 1 posted by his team on social networks, the opponent called for demonstrations throughout Russia during the presidential election scheduled to take place from March 15 to 17 and which should allow Vladimir Putin to remain in power. .
(afp)