Alexei Navalny died in prison

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in prison Photo: Alexander Zemlyanichenko

Alexey Navalny died in prison, the prison service is responsible for this About this reported on Friday in the prison where he was being held.

The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug said that the famous critic of Vladimir Putin “felt ill” after the walk and “almost immediately lost consciousness.” » and died soon after.

It said doctors were unable to resuscitate him and that the cause of death was «being determined,» state news agency TASS reported.

Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said that he has “no information” about Navalny’s death and that Putin was informed.

Leonid Vokov, the former head of Navalny's campaign headquarters and one of his closest advisers, said on social networks that his team has no confirmation of his death.

He said that Navalny's lawyer is already on the way. colonies in Yamal (Western Siberia) to check messages.

Mr Navalny organized major street protests against corruption and Putin in the 2010s and survived an assassination attempt in August 2020 after being poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok.

In 2021, after returning to Russia following his recovery, he was jailed for two and a half years. In March 2022, the sentence was extended by nine years for embezzlement and contempt of court charges.

The court then last August extended his sentence to 19 years on extremism charges, ordering his transfer to a safer and harsher prison prison.

In December, Navalny disappeared from his colony for two weeks. would later reappear in the Polar Wolf colony in the Arctic Circle, considered one of the harshest prisons in the country.

Russia will hold presidential elections in March that are expected to give Putin a fifth place finish. term as president.

Moscow has for years excluded opposition figures from elections and political life, and that pressure intensified after the Kremlin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in 2022.

Boris Nadezhdin, an outspoken opponent of the war, was disqualified from the March elections despite collecting the 100,000 signatures needed to get on the ballot.

More to follow.