What we know about the death in prison of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny

The Kremlin’s number 1 opponent and adversary died Friday in a penal colony in the Arctic, where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence.

The news immediately caused reactions around the world. Russia announced on Friday February 16 the death of Alexeï Navalny. Aged 47, this Russian opponent and number 1 adversary of Vladimir Putin died in a penal colony in the Arctic where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence.

According to the verdict pronounced against him, Alexeï Navalny was to serve his sentence in this colony known as “special diet”the category of establishments where the conditions of detention are the harshest and which are usually reserved for lifers and the most dangerous prisoners. Here’s what we know about his death.

Russian prison services speak of sudden discomfort

According to the Russian Prison Service (FSIN), Alexeï Navalny died on Friday after suddenly feeling unwell. “On February 16, 2024, in penitentiary center No. 3, prisoner Navalny AA felt unwell after a walk and almost immediately lost consciousness”detailed the FSIN, ensuring that the emergency services had tried to save him. “All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, but did not give a positive result. Emergency doctors pronounced the patient dead. The causes of death are being established”added the prison services.

“The doctors who arrived on site continued the resuscitation operations that had already been carried out by the prison doctors. They continued them for more than 30 minutes. However, the patient died,” said a public hospital in the town of Labytnangi, located near the penal colony where Alexeï Navalny was imprisoned.

According to the state news agency Ria Novosti, the Russian opponent had participated by video the day before in two hearings before a court in the Vladimir region. “Yesterday there were two hearings at our house. He did not express any complaints regarding his well-being, he spoke actively”the Kovrov city court told the Ria Novosti agency.

Navalny’s supporters claim not to have 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 [la localité où se trouve la prison]. We will communicate as soon as we have informationwrote its spokesperson Kira Iarmich on X (ex-Twitter), specifying that one of their lawyers was going there.

The Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is spreading the news of Alexey Navalny’s death in IK-3. We have no confirmation of this yet. Alexey’s lawyer is currently on his way to Kharp. As soon as we have some information, we will report on…

— Кира Ярмыш (@Kira_Yarmysh) February 16, 2024

Putin does not comment, his opponents accuse him

President Vladimir Putin was “informed” of the death in detention of opponent Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin spokesperson quickly said, without further comment. The Russian leader’s opponents immediately stepped up to the plate. Vladimir Putin must be “held personally responsible” And “punished” for the atrocities committed against Alexeï Navalny, his wife Yulia Navalnaïa reacted from Germany.

“The death of Alexei Navalny is a murder organized by Putin”declared former opposition MP Dmitri Goudkov on social networks.“Even if Alexei had died of ‘natural’ causes, they would have been the consequences of his poisoning and then torture in prison”he added. “It’s a crime of the regime, it’s obvious”added Russian dissident Oleg Orlov, on trial since Friday for having repeatedly denounced the assault on Ukraine. “This is terrible news, a tragedy for all of us”this veteran human rights defender, who faces up to five years in prison, added to journalists.

The 2021 Russian Nobel Peace Prize, Dmitri Mouratov, described him as “murder” and of “scary news” the death of opponent Alexeï Navalny in prison. “Murder was added to Alexei Navalny’s sentence”denounced the editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta banned in Russia in 2022 following the assault on Moscow in Ukraine. “Putin failed to kill Navalny quickly and secretly by poisoning him and now he has murdered him slowly and publicly in prison”declared Kremlin opponent and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov on the social network X. “Navalny was killed for having [montré] Putin and his mafia like the crooks and thieves they are.”

In today’s Russia, free spirits are put in the gulag and sentenced to death. Anger and indignation.

I salute the memory of Alexeï Navalny, his commitment, his courage. Thoughts for his family, his loved ones and for the Russian people.

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) February 16, 2024

Alexei Navalny “has just been brutally murdered by the Kremlin”, for his part estimated the Latvian president on Friday. The head of Polish diplomacy also judged Vladimir Putin “responsible” of the death of the opponent .

Vladimir Poutine “fears all competition” and only understands “strength”for his part denounced the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriï Iermak. “His death in a Russian prison and the fixation and fear of one man only highlights the weakness and corruption at the heart of the system that Putin built. Russia is responsible for this situation”finally reacted the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken.