Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, 47, died Friday at the Arctic prison colony where he was serving a 19-year-term, Russia’s federal penitentiary service said in a statement.
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“Navalny felt bad after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness. Medical staff arrived immediately and an ambulance team was called. Resuscitation measures were carried out which did not yield positive results. Paramedics confirmed the death of the convict. The causes of death are being established,” the statement said.
President Vladimir Putin has been informed of Navalny’s death, state news agency TASS reported.
Navalny’s press secretary said on X that she was unable to confirm his death, which was reported by the country’s prison service earlier.
Kira Yarmysh said that Navalny’s lawyer was travelling to the site of the prison where he had been serving his sentence.
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. He had been sentenced to 19 years under a “special regime”.
Navalny mobilised huge anti-government protests before being jailed in 2021, after surviving an assassination attempt by poisoning.
He has spent most of his detention at the IK-6 penal colony in the Vladimir region, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) east of Moscow.
A court last August extended his sentence to 19 years on extremism charges, and ruled he be moved to a harsher special regime prison that usually houses particularly dangerous prisoners.
Navalny posted on X in December that he had arrived at the Arctic penal colony and was visited by his lawyer.
“I didn’t expect anyone to find me here before mid-January,” he wrote, adding that he had seen little of his surroundings except for a snow-covered adjoining cell used as a yard and a fence outside his window.
“Unfortunately, there are no reindeer, but there are huge fluffy, and very beautiful shepherd dogs,” he said.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
This story originally appeared on France24
