Russian opponent and number one adversary of the Kremlin, Alexeï Navalny, died Friday in the Arctic prison where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence, announced the prison services (FSIN).
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He suffered sudden illness, according to Russian authorities, and doctors spent more than 30 minutes trying to resuscitate him.
“On February 16, 2024, in penitentiary center No. 3, prisoner Navalny AA felt unwell after a walk and almost immediately lost consciousness,” the FSIN of the Arctic region of Iamal said in a statement, assuring that emergency services 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 concise press release.
The 47-year-old activist was serving a 19-year prison sentence for “extremism” in a remote Arctic penal colony, under very difficult conditions. His multiple trials had been widely denounced as political and a way of punishing him for his opposition to Vladimir Putin.
The Russian president was informed of the death, according to his spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
During various hearings in trials in which he participated by video in recent months, this tall blond with piercing blue eyes appeared thin and aged. 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 his determination. During the hearings and in messages posted on social networks through his lawyers, he continues to insult Vladimir Putin, described as a “grandpa hiding in a bunker”, because the Russian president rarely appears in public .
In his trial for “extremism”, he castigated “the stupidest and most senseless war of the 21st century”, referring to the Russian assault on Ukraine.
In his online messages, he jokes about the bullying that the prison administration subjects him to.
In a message on February 1 posted by his team on social networks, he called for demonstrations throughout Russia during the presidential election scheduled for March 15 to 17 and which should allow Vladimir Putin to remain in power.
The Russian president’s victory seems certain, because opponents, led by Mr. Navalny, have been imprisoned or driven into exile in recent years, and repression has increased further since the start of Moscow’s assault on Ukraine. , triggered on February 24, 2022.
Everything you need to know about Navalny’s death in prison
– According to the Russian Prison Service (FSIN), Alexeï Navalny died on Friday after having a sudden illness.
“On February 16, 2024, in penitentiary center No. 3, prisoner Navalny AA felt unwell after a walk and almost immediately lost consciousness,” the FSIN of the Arctic region of Iamal said in a statement, assuring that emergency services tried to save him.
– The causes of death have not been established at this stage, according to the same source.
“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,” added the prison services in their press release.
– The opponent’s supporters said they had not been informed of his death.
The prison service “announces the news of the death of Alexei Navalny in penal colony number 3. We do not yet have confirmation of this.
Alexei’s lawyer leaves by plane for Kharp (the location where the prison is located, Editor’s note). We will communicate as soon as we have information, wrote spokesperson Kira Iarmich on X (ex-Twitter), specifying that one of their lawyers was going there.
– Incarcerated since January 2021, Alexeï Navalny was given yet another sentence last August: 19 years for “extremism” to be spent in one of the harshest establishments in the Russian prison system.
– This tall blond with piercing blue eyes appeared thin and aged during the last remote broadcasts of the last hearings in which he was involved, the last way to see him.
– He narrowly survived in 2020 a poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok while he was on the electoral campaign in Siberia, which he and his supporters had attributed to the Kremlin. Transferred in a coma to Germany for treatment, he chose to return to Russia after his convalescence, and was immediately arrested. This poisoning, a hunger strike and repeated stays in solitary confinement had left a physical mark on him.