Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died, prison authorities say

Alexei Navalny, the fiercest foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests, died in prison on Friday, Russia’s prison agency said. He was 47.

Navalny, by far Russia's most famous opposition leader, rose to prominence more than a decade ago by lampooning the elite class round Putin and voicing allegations of corruption on a vast scale.

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 (1,200 miles) north east of Moscow.

Navalny, the prison service said, had lost consciousness almost immediately.

"The medical staff of the institution arrived immediately, and an ambulance team was called," the prison service said.

"All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, which did not yield positive results. Doctors of the ambulance stated the death of the convict."

"The causes of death are being established."

Putin has been told about Navalny's death, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Navalny earned admiration from Russia's disparate opposition for voluntarily returning to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he had been treated for what Western laboratory tests showed was an attempt to poison him with a nerve agent.

Navalny said at the time that he was poisoned in Siberia in August 2020. The Kremlin denied trying to kill him and said there was no evidence he was poisoned with a nerve agent.

Navalny was being held in a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle. The IK-3 penal colony, located in Kharp in the Yamalo-Nenets region about 1,900 km (1200 miles) northeast of Moscow, is considered to be one of the toughest prisons in Russia.

Kharp is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Vorkuta, whose coal mines were part of the Soviet gulag prison-camp system.He had been sentenced to 19 years under a “special regime”.

'Brutally murdered' by the Kremlin

Russian newspaper editor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov said that Navalny's death was "murder", adding that he believed prison conditions had led to his demise.

Moscow bears a "heavy responsibility" for Navalny's death at an Arctic prison colony, Norway's foreign minister said.

"The Russian government bears a heavy responsibility," Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide wrote on X, adding that he was "deeply saddened by the news".

France said that Navalny had paid with his life for resisting "oppression" under Putin.

"Alexei Navalny paid with his life for his resistance to a system of oppression," French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said on X. "His death at a penal colony reminds us of the reality of Vladimir Putin's regime," Sejourne said, expressing condolences to Navalny's family and the Russian people.

Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said on X that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was "brutally murdered by the Kremlin".

"Whatever your thoughts about Alexei Navalny as the politician, he was just brutally murdered by the Kremlin. That's a fact and that is something one should know about the true nature of Russia's current regime," President Edgars Rinkevics said on X, offering condolences to Navalny's relatives.

The EU's Charles Michel said that Navalny "fought for values of freedom and democracy", adding that he sent his condolences to Navalny's family and "those who fight for democracy".

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that Navalny's death was "terrible news", adding that he "demonstrated incredible courage throughout his life".

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was "very sad" about reports on Navalny's death, saying it was a "terrible" sign of how Russia as a country had changed in recent years.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)