Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has died in the jail where the he was imprisoned, the prison officials announced on Friday. Navalnyi, who was in prison in of the Yamalia-Nenets region, in Siberia. Navalny was dubbed as the most important Russian opposition leader in the past decade. and he was only 47 years old.
In a statement published on its website, the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Iamalo-Nenetia region wrote that Navalny “felt ill” after a walk on Friday and “almost immediately lost consciousness.”
On December 25, the Russian opposition politician’s spokeswoman said Alexei Navalny had been moved to a penal colony in an arctic region of northern Russia after supporters lost contact with him for more than two weeks. Navalny had been located in the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, in the Yamalia-Nenets region, about 1,900 km northeast of Moscow, spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said.
The penitentiary colony to which Navalny was transferred, known as the “Polar Wolf”, is considered one of the toughest prisons in Russia. Most of the detainees there were convicted of serious crimes. Winters are harsh, with temperatures as low as minus 28 degrees Celsius. Located about 60 km from the Arctic Circle, the prison was founded in the 1960s as part of what was once the GULAG system of Soviet forced labor camps, according to the Moskovski Komsomolets newspaper.
Navalny’s allies, who were preparing for his transfer to a “special regime” colony, the harshest level in the Russian prison system, said at the time that he had not been seen by his lawyers since December 6 and issued a signal of alarm about his fate.
In January, the Russian dissident mocked the conditions in which the Russian authorities kept him incarcerated, saying that the cold in the region where the “Polar Wolf” penitentiary he was transferred to reminded him of a famous sequence in a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio , wrote Reuters.
Navalny said in a post shared on his accounts on social media platforms that, immediately after he was removed from the mandatory quarantine upon arrival at the penitentiary, he was put in a “punishment cell” because of his attitude. “It hasn’t been colder than -32C yet,” he noted in a series of tongue-in-cheek posts.
“Nothing refreshes you like a walk in Iamalia at 6:30 in the morning. Even at this temperature you can walk for more than half an hour only if you manage to grow a new nose, new ears and new fingers”, he added.
Navalny would have turned 48 in June this year.
Vladimir Putin has been informed of the death of Alexei Navalny, and the Kremlin has no additional information about the cause of death, said Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for the Russian presidency, quoted by Reuters.
EU, NATO blame Putin
EU and NATO leaders condemned Russia for the death of dissident Alexei Navalny in a penal colony in Siberia. EC President Charles Michel and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg say Russia must respond. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also had a reaction to Navalny’s death, saying that it was “obvious” that Putin was involved.
“Alexei Navalny fought for the values of freedom and democracy. For the sake of his ideals, he made the ultimate sacrifice. The EU holds the Russian regime solely responsible for this tragic death. My deepest condolences to his family. And to those who fight for democracy around the world in the darkest conditions. Fighters die.But the fight for freedom never ends“, said the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday that he was “deeply saddened” by the news of the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. “We must establish all the facts, and Russia must answer all serious questions about the circumstances of his death,” the NATO leader said.
“The one who works for democracy must be afraid for his life, and that’s why we are all very sad”, declared Olaf Scholz, in Berlin, in a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was “terrible news” and that Navalny had “shown incredible courage”.
The Russian opponent Aleksei Navalnyi “paid with his life for the opposition to a system of oppression”, writes French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne.
“His death in the penitentiary colony reminds us of the reality of Vladimir Putin’s regime,” denounces the head of French diplomacy.
Evika Siliņa, Latvia’s prime minister, accused Putin’s regime of torturing to death “one of the last symbols of democracy in Russia”. Sweden’s foreign minister said it was another “terrible crime” by the Putin regime.
The death of the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, “if it is confirmed, is a terrible tragedy”, declared Friday, in an interview given to the NPR station, the adviser on national security issues of the White House, Jake Sullivan. He also explained that the US will decide what to do next after the death confirmation.
Navalny’s last message before he died: “I am sending myself to a punishment cell”
Navalny accused in his last message before he died that the chiefs of the colony where he was incarcerated are trying to “break the record” of flattering President Vladimir Putin and have just sent him for another 15 days in a cell of punishment.
“Yamalia Penal Colony decided to break the record of flattery towards Vladimir and satisfaction of the Moscow authorities.They just gave me 15 days in a punishment cell.This is the fourth punishment cell coming in less than two months since I have been with them,” Navalny noted in a message in Russian on the “X” platform, formerly Twitter, this Wednesday.
In a separate message published earlier that day, he told his wife, Yulia Navalnaia: “My dear, everything is like a song with you: between us are cities, airport take-off lights, snow storms and thousands of kilometers. But I feel that you are close every second and I love you more and more”.
Navalny and his wife married in 2000, having two children together: a daughter, Daria, born in 2001, and a son, Zakhar, who was born in 2008.
Wife’s, mother’s reactions
Iulia, Navalny’s wife, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his associates will not go unpunished if the death of Alexei Navalny, as reported by Russian officials, turns out to be true. Iulia Navalnaya called on the international community to unite and fight against the “horrible regime” in Russia in a statement at the Munich Security Conference, speaking in Russian.
“They always lie. But if this is true, I want Putin and everyone around him to know that they will be punished for everything they have done to our country, my family and my husband. They will be brought to justice and that day will come soon,” she said.
She also launched “a call” for Vladimir Putin to be held “personally responsible for all the atrocities committed”.
In her turn, the mother of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Liudmila Navalnaya, says she saw him “alive, healthy and cheerful” on February 12 during a visit to the penal colony where he was held. “I don’t want to hear condolences,” the mother added, quoted by Novaya Gazeta.
Kasparov lashes out at Kremlin, but also at Western leaders
Russian dissident Garry Kasparov has delivered an extremely harsh message following the announcement of Alexei Navalny’s death, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin killed him, but also criticizing Western leaders who he says have not taken more convincing action against the Kremlin leader.
“He was killed for publicly exposing Putin and his mafia for the thugs and thieves they are. My thoughts go out to the brave man’s wife and children. Putin is Navalny’s killer, don’t have any doubt about it, but the fault lies with several people“, accused the former iconic chess player. “First of all, it’s the Russians who failed to match Alexei’s courage to end Putin’s dictatorship and war. Some of us tried and he (n.r. Navalnîi) marched with us in numbers that today seem in the domain of the fantastic. But it wasn’t enough,” Kasparov wrote.
“My eternal anger and contempt goes to the Western politicians who treated the poisoning and imprisonment of Navalny as just another subject of negotiation with Putin, just as they did with the murder of another friend, Boris Nemtsov. Big talk, zero action, more blood on their hands. As with Boris, as with assassinations around the world, interference in elections and aid given to other criminal dictators, as with Ukraine, and now with Alexei, Putin doesn’t care how things look and what you say,” Kasparov lashed out.
Oh! what a surprise. He joins the catalogue of the nearly 10 perished army Generals that flew out of a window last year.