Alexei Navalny, Russia’s top opposition politician, died on Friday at the Arctic prison colony, where he was serving a 19-year sentence.
Here’s what we know so far about the death of the 47-year-old chairman of the Anti-Corruption Foundation and ardent critic of President Vladimir Putin:
Died ‘after a walk’
According to Russia’s federal correctional service, Navalny, who had already been poisoned before being imprisoned, became ill while out for a stroll.
“Navalny felt ill after a walk, practically instantly losing consciousness. Medical personnel came immediately, and an ambulance was dispatched,” the jail service stated in a statement.
“Resuscitation measures were carried out, however the results were not positive. Paramedics confirmed the convict’s death. “The causes of death are being investigated,” it stated.
According to Russian news outlets, physicians from a nearby hospital attempted to resuscitate Navalny for 30 minutes.
Russia’s Investigative Committee launched an investigation into the death.
A lawyer for Navalny and a regional court claimed he actively engaged and did not appear to have any health issues when he attended a video judicial hearing on Thursday, the day before his death.
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Lawyers not told
Navalny’s defense team stated that they had not been informed of his death, but that a lawyer would travel to the isolated Kharp jail in the Arctic area to find out.
However, Western nations were quick to blame the Kremlin.
“The Russian government bears a heavy responsibility,” tweeted Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide on X, which was formerly Twitter.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the murder of senior Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in prison on Friday was a “warning” to the world and demanded an explanation for what happened.
Prison colony
Navalny has been in prison in Russia since January 2021, when he was sentenced to a prison colony for “extremism”. That period was extended to 19 years last August. That was the latest in a run of jail terms for embezzlement-related offenses.
He had spent the most of his captivity at the IK-6 penal camp in the Vladimir region, around 250 kilometers (155 miles) east of Moscow.
In December, he disappeared for more than two weeks. in the end of the month, it was announced that he had been sent to the infamous IK-3 colony in Kharp in the Arctic.
On December 26, Navalny posted on social media that he was “fine” following a “pretty exhausting” 20-day transfer to the distant prison inside the Arctic Circle.
IK-3 is almost 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow. Its name translates to Northern Lights, but its nickname is “Polar Wolf”.
It was erected in the 1960s on the site of a camp that was part of the Gulag, Stalin’s network of labor camps. It can hold up to 1,020 convicts. Inmates are assigned to labor processing reindeer skins.
Poison before prison
Navalny organized massive anti-government protests before being imprisoned in 2021 following a poisoning attempt on his life.
Navalny began his anti-corruption campaign in 2007, led massive rallies in 2011-12, and received his first conviction for embezzlement in 2013. He refuted the charges.
After being forbidden from participating in the 2018 presidential election, Navalny was hospitalized in Siberia in August 2020 after losing consciousness during a flight.
He was taken to a Berlin hospital, where tests revealed that he had been poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve weapon. Navalny charged Putin for the poisonings. The Kremlin has refuted the assertion.