Alexei Navalny, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and opposition leader, died in prison. Navalny was in jail for a long time and was serving his sentence. He was found dead in a prison in the Yamalo-Nenets region.
An attempt was also made to kill Navalny by poisoning him in the year 2020. A statement issued after Navalny’s death said, “Navalny felt strange after taking a walk, after which he almost immediately fainted.”
The statement further said that after this the medical staff immediately arrived and an ambulance team was called. All measures were taken to save them, but no positive results were obtained. Paramedics have confirmed the death of the accused.
The causes of death are being investigated. Earlier in December, Alexei Navalny was moved to the IK-3 penal colony (Polar Wolf) in the northern town of Kharap, 1,900 kilometers northeast of Moscow.
This prison is considered one of the toughest prisons in Russia, where most of the prisoners lodged have been convicted of serious crimes.
Responding to Navalny’s death, the Kremlin has said that it has no information about the cause of Alexei Navalny’s death, although the prison service is conducting all possible investigations.
47-year-old Navalny was considered a staunch critic of Putin. The biggest change in his political career came in 2013, when he secured 27 percent of the votes in the election for the post of Moscow mayor.
Regarding this election, people believed that it was conducted in a free and fair manner. During this time, Navalny became more and more visible in the eyes of the Russian government and he started being recognized as a staunch critic of Putin.
An attempt was made to kill by poisoning
In the year 2020, an attempt was made to kill Navalny by poisoning him. This caused a lot of anger in the country and the world and increased concern about political discontent in Russia.
The incident occurred on August 20, 2020, when Navalny fell ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow. Navalny’s team immediately suspected foul play.
After this, when investigation was done, initial reports revealed that Navalny was poisoned with nerve agent. This suspicion was later confirmed by independent laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden.
The poisoning of Navalny was compared to the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the United Kingdom in 2018. Navalny was then initially treated in Siberia before being flown to Berlin’s Charite Hospital, which saved his life.