MOSCOW: Opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been declared dead by the prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region in Russia, after collapsing and losing consciousness on Friday.
The prison service in a statement said that Navalny “felt unwell” after a walk at the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp and had lost consciousness immediately.
The statement indicated that despite all resuscitation efforts, they were unsuccessful. Paramedics confirmed the death of the convict.
Navalny, aged 47, was one of Putin's most prominent and enduring critics. He was imprisoned in a facility located approximately 40 miles north of the Arctic Circle, where he was serving a 19-year sentence under a “special regime”.
The penitentiary service stated that the cause of death had not yet been determined. Navalny had previously been hospitalized after complaining of malnourishment and other health issues resulting from mistreatment in the prison.
In early December, Navalny disappeared from a prison in the Vladimir region, where he was serving a 30-year sentence for extremism and fraud charges he deemed politically motivated retaliation for his leadership in the anti-Kremlin opposition movement of the 2010s. He had not anticipated being freed during Putin's lifetime.
He was later moved to a “special regime” penal colony IK-3 nicknamed “Polar Wolf”, in the northern town of Kharp. The prison is renowned as one of Russia's most severe, primarily housing individuals convicted of serious offenses.
Once a nationalist politician, Navalny played a crucial role in fueling the 2011-12 protests in Russia. He campaigned against election fraud and government corruption, delving into Putin's inner circle and sharing his findings through polished videos that amassed hundreds of millions of views.
His political zenith occurred in 2013 when he secured 27% of the vote in a Moscow mayoral election widely perceived as neither free nor fair.
In 2020, Navalny slipped into a coma following a suspected novichok poisoning orchestrated by Russia's FSB security service. He was then airlifted to Germany for medical care. After recovering, he went back to Russia in January 2021, only to be arrested on a parole violation charge. This incident marked the beginning of multiple jail terms amounting to over 30 years in total.
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