Alexei Navalny: Who is the jailed Russian opposition leader and Putin critic

Russian opposition leader and Putin critic Alexei Navalny died in prison on February 16, according to agency reports. He died in the prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region.

In a statement published on its website, the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District said that Navalny "felt unwell" after a walk on Friday, and "almost immediately lost consciousness", reported Reuters. The medical staff had been called but they were unable to resuscitate Navalny.

The Kremlin said that they have no information on the cause of the death yet. In December 2023, Navalny was moved to the IK-3 penal colony, nicknamed "Polar Wolf", in the northern town of Kharp, 1,900 kilometres northeast of Moscow. The jail is considered one of the toughest in Russia.

Who was Alexei Navalny?

Born in Butyn in the Soviet Union, Navalny (47) was considered to be one of the sharpest critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was a lawyer and an economist.

In 2000, he joined Yabloko, the Russian United Democratic Party. He also participated in the Russian March in 2006.  Navalny is said to have "instigated" the 2011-12 protests in Russia by campaigning against election fraud and government corruption. In 2013, he won 27 percent of the vote in a Moscow mayoral contest.

According to The Guardian, Navalny continued to be a trouble for Kremlin.  He identified a palace built on the Black Sea allegedly for Putin’s personal use, mansions and yachts used by the ex-president Dmitry Medvedev, and a sex worker who linked a top foreign policy official with a well-known oligarch. He shared his thoughts via social media, including his LiveJournal blog and RosPil website, according to CNN.

Navalny tried to run against Putin in the 2018 presidential election, but could not remain in the fray due to a 2014 embezzlement conviction.

However, in 2020,  Navalny was poisoned with a military nerve agent and taken to Germany for treatment. He blamed Putin for the attempt on his life. However, the President denied all charges. He returned to Russia in January 2021 but was arrested on a parole violation charge. He was sentenced to his first of several jail terms that would total more than 30 years behind bars. Last year, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison on charges of extremism.

Towards the end of 2023, Navalny made his first public appearance in a video call from the Arctic penal colony. he had joked that he was yet to receive any Christmas mail due to being "quite far away".

A film about his life won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature last year. He is survived by his wife, Yulia, daughter Daria and son Zahar.

In an interview with NBC News in 2021, Vladimir Putin said he could not guarantee if Navalny would get out of prison alive.