Alexei Navalny, anti-corruption activist and Kremlin critic, dies in Siberian prison
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Considered to be Putin’s biggest critic, and certainly one of his most vocal, Alexei Navalny died on February 17th while interred in a Siberian penal colony.
His untimely death comes after a previous assassination attempt in 2020, when he was poisoned with the nerve agent, Novichok – notoriously, the Russian head of state’s toxin of choice.
Navalny, 47, had been relocated to the prison, also known as “Polar Wolf”, in December 2023, following Putin’s confirmation of plans to run for president yet again in the upcoming Russian elections. Navalny had originally been incarcerated upon his return to Moscow after recovering from Putin’s assassination attempt in 2021. Since his initial arrest, Navalny had been found guilty of fraud in 2022 and sentenced to nine years in prison, before being found guilty on additional charges of extremism in 2023 and given a further sentence of 19 years.
Although the prison confirmed to Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, that he had died of “sudden death syndrome” during a walk, the days following his death were loaded with suspicion and much speculation as to whether that was the true cause of Navalny’s death. Yulia Navalnaya, his widow, publicly expressed her belief that her husband was poisoned with Novichok again, which the Kremlin denies. Theories of poisoning were exacerbated by reports of Navalny’s “missing” body, after lawyers could not locate it in the Salekhard morgue.
In a video uploaded to Navalny’s YouTube channel on 22nd February, his mother said she had been allowed to see his body at a morgue on 21st February, but authorities were still refusing to release the body to the family, and attempting to blackmail them into a secret burial.
“According to the law, they should have given me Alexei’s body immediately,” his mother said. “But they haven’t done it until now. Instead, they are blackmailing me, and telling me where, when and how Alexei should be buried… They want it to be done secretly, without a farewell.”
Navalny’s widow also released a video to his YouTube account several days earlier, issuing a powerful statement about her husband’s death, further attributing blame to Mr. Putin. She stated that: “Putin killed my children’s father. Putin took away the most dear thing I have ever had… But what is more, Putin took Navalny away from you.”
“I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny, continue to fight for our country. I urge you to stand next to me,” Navalnaya announced later in the video, despite her previous reluctance to become politically involved while Navalny was alive.
As Putin’s most prominent and fierce oponent, Navalny’s death triggered significant reactions within Russia, with arrests made over the weekend following his death of those leaving flowers and books – including Franz Kafka’s The Trial – at national sites of memorial, such as the Solovetsky Stone in Moscow.
Many people wanting to commemorate Navalny expressed their fear of punishment by the Russian authorities for doing so; speaking to the Financial Times, a woman in Moscow said: “I will never forget how I hid flowers under my jacket, exiting the metro station that was surrounded by police vans.”
Over 340 people across Russia were detained in the 24 hours after Navalny’s death.
The reaction of the Russian state marks an integral chapter in the book of modern history and serves as an exact reminder of what Alexei Navalny was killed fighting against - the corruption and repression of the Kremlin.