2024-02-16 16:40:34
Russian authorities report the death of the Kremlin critic. There is no confirmation from those around Navalny.
According to Russian information, Alexei Navalny is dead. If the report is confirmed, it would be another case in a series of opposition figures who have died under unclear circumstances.
Finistre Arnaud / Imago
she./ etc. Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny is dead. This was reported by the Reuters news agency on Friday, citing the Yamal-Nenets prison service. Navalny was imprisoned there.
⚡️ Alexei Navalny died in a penal colony, according to the Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service. pic.twitter.com/KIOJLyVGJu
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) February 16, 2024
Navalny is said to have felt ill during a walk, then fainted and died shortly followingwards. This emerges from a statement from the Russian prison authorities. According to the authorities, an ambulance arrived immediately. The resuscitation that was initiated was unsuccessful. The information might not be checked.
Navalny’s spokeswoman said in a livestream on Friday followingnoon that the news might not yet be confirmed. Navalny’s lawyer is on the way to the prison camp where Navalny was held. But he probably won’t get there until Saturday morning.
⚡️⚡️⚡️The Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is spreading the news of Alexei Navalny’s death in IK-3. We have no confirmation of this yet. Alexei’s lawyer is currently on his way to Kharp. As soon as we have some information, we will… https://t.co/zSDaBs708e
— The Anti-Corruption Foundation (@ACF_int) February 16, 2024
According to media reports, Navalny’s mother wrote on Facebook that she did not want to hear any expressions of condolence. She only saw her son in prison on February 12th. “He was alive, healthy and happy.” Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s wife, gave a speech at the Munich Security Conference on Friday and expressed her doubts regarding Russia’s information. “We cannot believe Putin and Putin’s government,” Navalnaya said. “You always lie.” If the news is true, Putin will have to answer for her husband’s death.
Navalny was the most famous opponent of the Russian regime. He has denounced corruption in Russia for years. He first gained fame as a blogger and then gathered a team of activists around him who repeatedly published research regarding the Russian state apparatus. Navalny was one of the few who dared to openly criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Only narrowly survived attempted murder in 2020
In the summer of 2020, Navalny narrowly survived an assassination attempt. During a domestic flight in Russia, his health deteriorated and the plane had to make an emergency landing. The nerve agent Novichok was detected in Navalny’s blood. A Russian agent later said the poison was smeared on Navalny’s underpants. Western governments blamed the Russian domestic secret service FSB and Putin personally for the attack. Navalny also blamed Putin and a hit squad from the domestic secret service FSB for the attack.
After the attack, Navalny was treated at the Berlin Charité. In January 2021 he returned to Moscow, where he was arrested immediately upon arrival. Most recently he was in a Russian prison camp in the village of Charp.
Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in a prison camp and was internationally classified as a political prisoner. Navalny also spoke out several times from captivity via video or through his lawyer. There was always talk of torture being used in the prison camp.
Navalny is one of a number of dead Kremlin critics
If the report regarding Navalny’s death is confirmed, a Russian opposition figure would have once once more died under unclear circumstances. In 2006, the Kremlin-critical journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot in the stairwell of her home. Previously, she dealt with crimes committed by the Russian army in the second Chechen war. It is still unclear who ordered her murder.
In November 2006, Alexander Litvinenko died as a result of polonium poisoning. Litvinenko was a former Russian spy who left the Russian intelligence service in 2004 and fled to London. Two years later he had tea there with two former Russian agents. The poison was probably administered to him. Investigations by the EU and Great Britain later pointed to one of the two former agents as the perpetrator. In 2016, a British investigation revealed that the order for the poison attack came from the Russian state.
Navalny leaves a Moscow detention center in March 2015 following distributing leaflets on a subway.
Yuri Kochetkov / EPA
In March 2018, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter collapsed on a park bench in Salisbury. The two were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. Skripal was previously imprisoned in Russia for allegedly supplying information regarding Russian secret agents to Great Britain. In 2010 he was released in a prisoner exchange and fled Russia. Western governments were convinced that Russia had ordered the attack. The incident sparked a diplomatic crisis. Skripal and his daughter survived the attack.
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