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Flowers laid in the streets…Russian opposition leader Navalny dies
3 hours ago
Russian prison authorities announced on the 16th that Alexei Navalny, 47, who was Russia’s most prominent opposition leader in recent years, has died in an Arctic prison where he was being held.
Navalny, who was one of President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics, was sentenced to 19 years in prison. The charges for which he was imprisoned were widely seen as being motivated by the Putin regime’s political agenda.
Late last year, Navalny was transferred from a prison near Moscow to a maximum-security prison in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in the Arctic Circle.
Prison authorities in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug said Navalny felt “unwell” after going for a walk on the 16th.
Prison authorities said Navalny then “lost consciousness almost immediately.” Emergency medical teams were called immediately and tried to resuscitate Navalny, but he did not recover.
“The emergency team doctor declared the inmate dead. The cause of death is currently being determined,” the prison said in a statement.
Navalny participated in the hearing via video link from prison on the 15th, appearing in good spirits and smiling in the footage.
Most political and media figures critical of President Putin have already fled Russia.
However, in August 2020, Navalny lost consciousness on a flight from Western Siberia to Moscow and was taken to a hospital in Russia. In September of the same year, authorities in Germany, where he was later transferred for treatment, announced that the nerve agent Novichok had been used.
Navalny then returned to Japan in January 2021. He was detained by police at the immigration counter at Sheremetyevo Airport on the outskirts of Moscow, where he remained in detention for three years and one month.
The BBC’s Russia Editor-in-Chief, Steve Rosenberg, looked back on Mr. Navalny’s activities before his death and covered the reactions of Russians to his death.