Opposition leader Alexei Navalny appears on a screen set up at a courtroom of the Moscow City Court via a video link from his prison colony during a hearing of an appeal against his nine-year prison sentence he was handed in March after being found guilty of embezzlement and contempt of court, in Moscow on May 17, 2022.
Kirill Kudryavtsev | AFP | Getty Images
Imprisoned Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has died, state news agency Tass reported on Friday, citing the prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region where he had been serving his sentence.
The prison service reportedly said the cause of Navalny’s death was still to be established.
Alexey Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh said in a Google-translated update on the X social media platform that “We don’t have any confirmation of this yet. Alexey’s lawyer is now flying to Kharp. As soon as we have any information, we will report it.”
CNBC could not independently verify the report.
Navalny was one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics and had been serving a 19-year jail term.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
This story originally appeared on CNBC
