Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny dies at 47

Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny is dead, the prison service of the region where he had been serving his sentence says.

Navalny, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, has been in Russian jail since 2021 on charges widely viewed as politically motivated, and his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, has said she doesn’t know whether the “horrible news” is true
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesperson, said his team had yet to receive confirmation of the death but his lawyer was travelling to Siberia.
Putin’s spokesman said Russian’s penitentiary service was looking into Navalny’s death but provided no further information.

In August, Navalny was found guilty of founding and funding an extremist organisation, which he denies, and was given an extra 19 years in jail, howeverm he had already been sentenced to nine years for parole violations, fraud and contempt of court.
The death of Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, robs the disparate Russian opposition of its most courageous and charismatic leader just as Putin prepares for an election which will keep the former KGB spy in power until at least 2030.

Navalny rose to prominence more than a decade ago by speaking publicly and documenting what he said was the vast corruption and opulence among the “crooks and thieves” who ran Putin’s Russia.
The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District said in a statement that Navalny felt unwell after a walk at the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, about 1,900 km northeast of Moscow into the Arctic Circle.

According to the prison service, he lost consciousness almost immediately and died shortly afterwards despite the efforts of the prison’s medical team and ambulance staff.