Alexei Navalny, the fiercest critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in prison Friday, according to international media reports citing Russian prison officials.
However, there has not yet been any official confirmation of those reports from those close to Navalny, including his legal team.
Navalny, 47, has been serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism in a “special regime” penal colony above the Arctic Circle. He was moved there in December 2023. His allies have labelled the sentences against him as politically motivated.
Russia’s Federal Prison Service said in a statement that Navalny felt unwell after a walk on Friday and lost consciousness. An ambulance arrived to try to rehabilitate him, but he died, The Associated Press and Reuters reported, citing those Russian officials.
The service said the cause of death was “being established.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday Putin has been told about Navalny’s death, and Russia’s Investigate Committee said it has launched a procedural probe into the death.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly issued a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, on the reports.
“Alexei Navalny gave his freedom in the hopes of a better, more democratic future for the Russian people,” she said.
“Reports of his death are a painful reminder of Putin’s continued oppressive regime.”
His allies decried his December prison transfer to the Arctic Circle as yet another attempt to force Navalny into silence. The remote region is notorious for long and severe winters.
International reaction to the news has been swift.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday at the Munich Security Conference he was “deeply saddened and disturbed” by the reports of Navalny’s death.
“We need to establish all the facts, and Russia needs to answer all the serious questions about the circumstances of his death,” he said.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said on X on Friday that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was “brutally murdered by the Kremlin.”
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said on X that “Alexei Navalny paid with his life for his resistance to a system of oppression.”
“His death in a penal colony reminds us of the reality of Vladimir Putin’s regime. To his family, his loved ones and the Russian people, France presents its condolences,” Sejourne said.
How did Navalny gain so much traction?
Unlike Navalny, Putin’s political opponents have often faded amid factional disputes or went into exile after imprisonment, suspected poisonings or other heavy repression.
He gained attention by focusing on corruption in Russia’s murky mix of politicians and businesses; Navalny’s work had a pocketbook appeal to Russians’ widespread sense of being cheated, and he carried stronger resonance than more abstract and philosophical concerns about democratic ideals and human rights.
Although state-controlled TV channels ignored Navalny, his investigations resonated with younger Russians via YouTube videos and posts on his website and social media accounts.
The strategy helped him reach into the hinterlands far from the political and cultural centres of Moscow and St. Petersburg and establish a strong network of regional offices.
In 2017, an assailant threw green-hued disinfectant in his face, seriously damaging one of his eyes; while serving a jail sentence in 2019 for involvement in an election protest, he was taken to the hospital with an illness that authorities said was an allergic reaction, but some doctors said it appeared to be poisoning.
A year later, on Aug. 20, 2020, he became severely ill on a flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk. The plane made an emergency landing in the city of Omsk, where he spent two days in a hospital while supporters begged doctors to allow him to be taken to Germany for treatment.
Once in Germany, doctors determined he had been poisoned with a strain of Novichok – similar to the nerve agent that nearly killed former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England in 2018 and resulted in the death of another woman.
The Kremlin rejected it was behind the poisoning, but Navalny challenged the denial.
He released the recording of a call he said he made to an alleged member of a group of officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB), who purportedly carried out the poisoning and then tried to cover it up. The FSB dismissed the recording as fake.
But rather than remain abroad, Navalny and his wife boarded a plane for Moscow on Jan. 17, 2021. On arrival, he told waiting journalists that he was pleased to be back, walked to passport control and into custody. In just over two weeks, he was tried, convicted and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.
The events sparked massive protests that reached to Russia’s farthest corners and saw more than 10,000 people detained by police.
When Putin sent troops to invade Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Navalny strongly condemned the war in social media posts from prison and during his court appearances.
A documentary called Navalny about his story won an Academy Award for best documentary in March 2023.
At the award ceremony, Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya said her husband was in prison for “telling the truth.”
“My husband is in prison just for defending democracy,” she said.
“Alexei, I am dreaming of the day you will be free and our country will be free.”
Besides his wife, Navalny is survived by a son and a daughter.
— with files from Reuters and The Associated Press
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