Officials say Alexei Navalny, Putin's sworn enemy, has died

Alexei NavalnyThe Russian penitentiary, who campaigned against official corruption and organized mass anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin's arch enemy, died Friday in an Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence, Russia's prison agency said. He was 47 years old.

Stunning news – less than a month before the election It would give Putin six more years in power – It sparked renewed criticism and anger from world leaders towards the Russian president, who suppressed the opposition at home.

After initially allowing people to place flowers at memorials to victims of Soviet-era repression in several Russian cities, police closed off some areas and began making arrests.

About 30 people were detained in St. Petersburg, according to local media, and more than a dozen — including one carrying a sign reading “murderer” — were arrested near a memorial to political prisoners in Moscow, according to the OVD-Info monitoring group. She added that arrests occurred in several other cities.

But there was no sign that Navalny's death would spark major protests, with the opposition divided and now without its “guiding star,” in the words of one of her colleagues.

Russia's Federal Prison Service said Navalny felt ill after a walk on Friday and lost consciousness in a punishment colony in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow. An ambulance arrived but he could not be revived. She added that the cause of death “is being determined.”

It was Navalny Imprisoned since January 2021When he returned to Moscow to face certain arrest after recovering in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. He was later convicted three times, saying each case was politically motivated.

US President Joe Biden said that Washington does not know exactly what happened, “but there is no doubt that Navalny's death was the result of something that Putin and his thugs did.”

Navalny “could have lived safely in exile” but returned to his homeland despite knowing he might be imprisoned or killed “because he believed so strongly in his country, in Russia.”

In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Navalny “may have paid with his life for this courage.”

Standing alongside Schulz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose country is fending off the Russian invasion, said: “Putin doesn't care who dies so he can hold on to his position.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had been informed of Navalny's death. The opposition leader's spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the team did not yet have confirmation.

Russia's main state television channel cut off its news bulletin to announce the death, while other stations only broadcast brief reports.

Russian social media channel SOTA shared a video of Navalny — reportedly in a prison courtroom on Thursday — laughing and joking with a judge via video link in one of several hearings into conditions in prison.

Navalny was transferred in December from a penal colony in central Russia to a “special regime” facility — the maximum security level. His allies denounced it Transported to a remote arctic colony As another attempt to isolate and silence Navalny.

Before his arrest, Navalny campaigned against official corruption, organized large anti-Kremlin protests and ran for public office.

In Putin's Russia, political activists Faded often Amid factional disputes, he went into exile after imprisonment, suspected poisonings, or other acts of repression. But Navalny has steadily grown stronger and has risen to the top of the opposition through determination, courage and a deep understanding of how social media can circumvent the Kremlin's stranglehold on independent news outlets.

He faced every setback—be it physical assault or imprisonment—with fierce dedication and sarcastic wit. When authorities put Navalny in a small cell for minor infractions — allowing him access to a narrow exercise yard only early in the morning — he joked: “Few things are as refreshing as walking in Yamal at 6:30 a.m..”

Navalny's ally, Lyubov Sobol, told The Associated Press that the repressive climate in Russia makes any rallies over his death risky. “People can be sentenced to long prison terms for participating in a peaceful protest.”

She said that without a “guiding star” like Navalny, “people will have a greater fear of repression, when they see the government’s impunity.”

Navalny was born in Putin, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) outside Moscow. He earned a law degree from People's Friendship University in 1998 and received a fellowship at Yale University in 2010.

He gained attention by focusing on corruption in Russia's murky mix of politicians and businesses. One of his early moves was to buy a stake in oil and gas companies to become an active shareholder and push for transparency.

His work had great appeal to Russians' widespread feeling that they had been cheated, and resonated more powerfully than abstract concerns about democracy and human rights.

He was convicted in 2013 of embezzlement in what he described as a politically motivated trial and sentenced to five years in prison, but the public prosecutor's office surprisingly demanded his release pending appeal. A higher court later sentenced him to suspended imprisonment.

One day before the ruling, Navalny registered himself as a candidate for mayor of Moscow. The opposition believed that his release was the result of large protests against the ruling issued against him, but many observers attributed this to the authorities’ desire to give a tinge of legitimacy to the race.

Navalny finished second, an impressive performance against an incumbent president who was backed by Putin's political machine and popular for improving Moscow's infrastructure.

Navalny's popularity increased after the prominent charismatic politician Boris Nemtsov was shot dead in 2015 on a bridge near the Kremlin.

Whenever Putin spoke about Navalny, he was careful never to say his name, referring to him as “that person” or a similar term, in an apparent attempt to downplay his importance.

In opposition circles, Navalny has often been seen as having an overly nationalistic bent in support of ethnic Russian rights — he supported Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014 even though most countries deemed it illegal — but he has been able to move beyond that. Mostly matters. Reservations through the investigations conducted by his Anti-Corruption Fund.

Although state-controlled television ignored Navalny, his investigations resonated with young Russians via YouTube and posts on his website and social media accounts. This strategy helped him reach remote areas far from the political and cultural centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg and establish a strong network of regional offices.

His work has expanded from focusing on corruption to criticizing the political system under Putin. He has been a catalyst figure for protests of unprecedented scale against questionable national election results and the exclusion of independent candidates.

Navalny realized that he could attract attention through A An eloquent statement and a powerful image. His description of United Russia, Putin's power base, as a “party of crooks and thieves” gained immediate popularity.

In 2017, after an attacker threw green disinfectant in his face, severely damaging one of his eyes, Navalny joked in a vlog that people were comparing him to the comic book character “The Hulk.”

It was much worse to come.

While serving a prison sentence in 2019 for his involvement in an election protest, he was hospitalized for an illness that authorities said was an allergic reaction, but which some doctors said appeared to be poisoning.

A year later, he became seriously ill during 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 the hospital before being flown to Germany to receive treatment.

Doctors there concluded that he had been poisoned with a strain of Novichok, similar to a nerve gas Almost killed Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in 2018. Navalny was in a medically induced coma for about two weeks.

The Kremlin strongly refused to be behind the poisoning incident, but Navalny defied this with a bold step. He released a recording of a call he said he had with an alleged member of a group of officers from the Federal Security Service, or FSB, who allegedly carried out the poisoning and then tried to cover it up. The Federal Security Service rejected the recording as fake.

Russian authorities then raised the stakes, announcing that while in Germany, Navalny had violated the terms of a suspended sentence on one of his convictions and that he would be arrested if he returned to his home country.

However, Navalny and his wife boarded a plane to Moscow on January 17, 2021. Upon arrival, he told waiting journalists that he was happy to be back, went to passport control and headed there. In custody.

Last month, he explained his reason for returning, saying: “I don't want to give up my country or my beliefs.”

Just over two weeks after his return, he was tried, convicted and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. This sparked massive protests that reached the remotest corners of Russia and saw police arrest more than 10,000 people.

As part of a widespread crackdown on dissent that followed, a Moscow court in 2021 banned Navalny's anti-corruption foundation and about 40 regional offices as extremist, a ruling that opened up members of his team to prosecution.

When Putin sent troops to invade Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Navalny strongly condemned it in social media posts from prison and during court hearings.

Less than a month after the war began, he was sentenced to another nine years in prison for embezzlement and contempt of court in a case that he and his supporters rejected as fabricated. Last August, he was convicted of extremism and sentenced to prison 19 years in prison.

when A movie called “Navalny” Regarding his story, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Film in 2023, his wife, Yulia, said at the awards ceremony: “My husband is in prison simply for telling the truth. My husband is in prison only for defending democracy. Alexei, I dream of the day when you will be free and our country will be free.”

In addition to his wife, he leaves behind a son and a daughter.