Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Russia’s most prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny reportedly died on Friday (16/2/2024) after a walk where he was serving a prison sentence, Russian prison authorities said.
Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, rose to fame more than a decade ago for blogging about what he called massive corruption and luxury among Russia’s “criminal and thieving” elite.
The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District said in a statement that Navalny felt unwell after walking around the prison about 1,900 km (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow toward the Arctic Circle.
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Apart from Navalny, several people who opposed Putin or his interests have also died in unclear circumstances or near death. Following are several of Putin’s ‘enemies’ who experienced mysterious incidents, as quoted by Reuters.
Yevgeny Prigozhin
The head of Russia’s Wagner Group mercenary force, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was reportedly killed after the private plane he was traveling in crashed north of Moscow in August last year.
The crash occurred after two months earlier, Prigozhin and his military group launched a failed rebellion against the authority of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Apart from Prigozhin, several people who opposed Putin or his interests have also died in unclear circumstances or near death. Following are several of Putin’s ‘enemies’ who experienced mysterious incidents, as quoted by Reuters.
Sergei Skripal
Former Russian double agent who leaked secrets to British intelligence, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the English cathedral city of Salisbury in March 2018.
They were taken to hospital in critical condition, and British officials said they had been poisoned with Novichok, a group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s. Luckily both of them survived.
Russia denies any involvement in the poisoning and says Britain is fomenting anti-Russian hysteria.
Vladimir Kara-Murza
Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza said he believed there were attempts to poison him in 2015 and 2017.
A German laboratory later found elevated levels of mercury, copper, manganese and zinc in him. This was noted in a medical report, but Moscow denied any involvement.
Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent and outspoken critic of Putin, died in 2006 aged 43 after drinking green tea laced with polonium-210, a rare and powerful radioactive isotope, at London’s Millennium Hotel.
A British investigation concluded in 2016 that Putin may have approved the killing. But the Kremlin denies involvement.
An investigation led by a senior British judge found that former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoy and another Russian, Dmitry Kovtun, carried out the murder as part of an operation he said may have been directed by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the main heir to the Soviet-era KGB.
Litvinenko fled Russia to England six years before he was poisoned.
Alexander Perepilichny
Alexander Perepilichny, a 44-year-old Russian man, was found dead near his luxury home in an exclusive area outside London after he went out jogging in November 2012.
Perepilichny sought refuge in Britain in 2009 after assisting a Swiss investigation into a Russian money laundering scheme. His sudden death led to suggestions that he may have been murdered.
British police ruled out foul play despite suspicions he may have been murdered with a rare poison. A pre-inquest hearing heard that traces of the rare and deadly poison gelsemium plant were found in his stomach.
Perepilichny enjoyed a large bowl of sorrel soup, a popular Russian dish. Again, Russia denied involvement.
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko, then leader of Ukraine’s opposition, was poisoned during the 2004 presidential election campaign in which he ran as a pro-Western candidate against pro-Moscow Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich.
He said he was poisoned while having dinner outside Kyiv with officials from Ukraine’s security services. Russia denies involvement.
His body was found to contain 1,000 times more dioxin than would normally be present. Her face and body were disfigured by the poisoning, and she underwent dozens of operations afterward.
He won the presidency in a re-poll after Ukraine’s Supreme Court overturned the results declaring Yanukovich the winner amid street protests dubbed the “Orange Revolution”.
Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who reported on human rights abuses, was shot dead outside her Moscow apartment on October 7, 2006, after returning home from the supermarket.
The murder of Politkovskaya, a 48-year-old mother of two, sparked protests in Western countries. The incident also underscores concerns about the dangers to journalists working in Russia.
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