Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in Federal Governmental Institution IK-3 in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Russian Federal Penitentiary Service announced his death.
"Convict Navalny A.A. felt unwell and lost consciousness after a walk in Federal Governmental Institution IK-3. All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out but did not yield positive results. The paramedics confirmed the death of the convict. The cause of death is being determined," the statement reads.
According to RT, Navalny's cause of death was a detached blood clot.
On February 14, the press secretary of the politician, Kira Yarmysh, reported that Navalny was sent to a punishment cell called SHIZO for the 27th time during his imprisonment.
Alexei Navalny was 47 years old.
Navalny had been in detention since the beginning of 2021 - he was arrested immediately upon returning to Russia from Germany, where he was receiving treatment after being poisoned by Russian special forces with a Novichok nerve agent. In August 2023, the Moscow City Court sentenced the politician to 19 years in prison in a high-security penal colony on extremism charges.
Navalny was born on June 4, 1976, in the town of Butyn in the Odintsovsky District of the Moscow Region. In 1993, at 17, he graduated from Kalininets secondary school. In 1998, he graduated from the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia with a law degree. He then studied securities and exchanges at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.
He was involved in business for some time. He started his political career in 2004. He was repeatedly charged with criminal cases on various pretexts.
He came in second in the Moscow mayoral elections in 2013.
In December 2016, he announced his intention to participate in the presidential elections in Russia, which took place in March 2018. However, he was not allowed to participate in the elections.
From 2017 to 2020, he led the mass protest movement in Russia. He was the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation.
On August 20, 2020, he fell into a coma as a result of poisoning with a Novichok nerve agent. At first, he was in the toxicology department of the City Clinical Emergency Hospital No. 1 in Omsk. On August 22, Navalny was evacuated for treatment at the Charité in Berlin. After being discharged, he underwent rehabilitation in Germany. The Russian authorities denied allegations of involvement in his poisoning. However, independent investigators conclusively proved the involvement of Russian special services in the attempted murder of Navalny. They named the individuals and organizers involved in the assassination attempt.
On January 17, 2021, after treatment in Germany, Navalny returned from Berlin to Moscow, where he was detained at passport control.
On February 2, 2021, a Moscow court replaced Navalny's three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case with a prison sentence.
On March 22, 2022, the Lefortovo District Court of Moscow sentenced Alexei Navalny to additional nine years in a high-security prison on fraud and contempt of court charges.
On August 4, 2023, Navalny was sentenced to an additional 19 years in a "special regime" colony on charges including publicly inciting extremist activity, financing extremist activity, and "rehabilitating Nazi ideology."
