Thunderbolt in Russia. Russian opponent and number one adversary of the Kremlin, Alexeï Navalny, died this Friday, February 16 in the Arctic prison where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence, announced the prison services (FSIN). “On February 16, 2024, in penitentiary center No. 3, prisoner Navalny AA felt unwell after a walk and almost immediately lost consciousness,” the FSIN of the Arctic region of Iamal said in a statement, assuring that emergency services tried to save him.
“All the necessary resuscitation measures were carried out but did not give a positive result. The emergency doctors noted the death of the patient. The causes of death are being established,” he said. , in this concise press release.
The 47-year-old activist was serving a 19-year prison sentence for “extremism” in a remote Arctic penal colony, under very difficult conditions. His multiple trials had been widely denounced as political and a way of punishing him for his opposition to Vladimir Putin. The Russian president was informed of the death, according to his spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
During various hearings in trials in which he participated by video in recent months, this tall blond with piercing blue eyes appeared thin and aged. He had a series of health problems linked to a hunger strike and the poisoning he suffered in 2020 and which he miraculously survived.
Poisoned in 2020
Prison had not dampened his determination. During the hearings and in messages posted on social networks through his lawyers, he continues to insult Vladimir Putin, described as “grandpa hiding in a bunker”, because the Russian president rarely appears in public . In his trial for “extremism”, he castigated “the stupidest and most senseless war of the 21st century”, referring to the Russian assault on Ukraine.
In his online messages, he jokes about the bullying that the prison administration subjects him to. In a message on February 1 posted by his team on social networks, he called for demonstrations throughout Russia during the presidential election scheduled for March 15 to 17 and which should allow Vladimir Putin to remain in power. The Russian president’s victory seems assured because opponents, led by Alexeï Navalny, have been imprisoned or driven into exile in recent years, and repression has further increased since the start of Moscow’s assault on Ukraine, launched on February 24, 2022.
Russia accused
Initial reactions were heard internationally, testifying to the shock of this news. Navalny “has just been brutally assassinated by the Kremlin”, affirmed the President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs, while the Russian government “bears a heavy responsibility”, affirmed Norwegian diplomacy.
For his part, the head of French diplomacy Stéphane Séjourné paid tribute to a man who “paid with his life for his resistance to a system of oppression”, recalling that “his death in a penal colony reminds us of the reality of the regime of Vladimir Poutine.”
Ukrainian head of state Volodomyr Zelensky, for his part, judged that Russian President Vladimir Putin should “be held accountable for his crimes”.