Outspoken Critic of Putin, Alexei Navalny, Dead at 47
Russian authorities say that Navalny died after going for a walk.
Alexei Navalny, an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, has died, according to Russia’s Federal Prison Service. He was 47 years old.
The Prison Service stated that Navalny fell ill after a walk Friday and lost consciousness, The Associated Press reported. Although an ambulance came, he was unable to be revived and died.
Navalny was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism in an Arctic penal colony, known as “Polar Wolf,” in Kharp in northern Russia. According to the AP, Navalny “crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests.” He was considered Putin’s “fiercest foe.”
Navalny began serving his sentence in January 2021. He had just returned to Moscow from Germany where he was recuperating from nerve agent poisoning. He believed that the Kremlin was responsible for his poisoning, the AP reported.
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Many Western leaders have praised Navalny for his bravery, and laid the blame for his death on Russian authorities. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that, if confirmed, “his death in a Russian prison and the fixation and fear of one man only underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built. Russia is responsible for this.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Navalny “has probably now paid for this courage with his life.”
This is a breaking news story.
