Russian Media Reports Alexei Navalny Has Died in Prison
HAVANA TIMES – Russia’s state media is reporting imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died at age 47. Prison authorities said in a statement earlier today Navalny felt ill after going on a walk and lost consciousness. They say medical staff were unable to resuscitate him. The cause of death has not been determined. Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said on social media their team had not received confirmation of his death and that Navalny’s lawyer was traveling to the penal colony, located in the town of Kharp in the Arctic Circle, where Navalny was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of “extremism” over his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The prison, nicknamed “Polar Wolf,” is among the harshest in Russia, due in part to the severe winter.
Navalny had been detained since 2021, when he returned to Moscow after an assassination attempt with a nerve agent in 2020. Navalny has been hailed as an anti-corruption crusader who was willing to stand up to Putin, and has also been condemned for his past antisemitic and ultranationalist comments and actions.
Here is a partial list of Putin critics or opponents who have magically died or been targeted over the last few decades:
Feb 2024- Alexei Navalny – Russian opposition leader (was also poisoned in 2020, but survived)
August 2023- Yevgeny Prigozhin – Russian mercenary leader who challenged Putin (bomb)
Sept 2022- Ravil Maganov – Chairman of national oil company Lukoil. fell from sixth-floor window at the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital”.
Aug 2019- Zelimkhan Khangoshvili- aid to Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov (shot in Berlin by FSB agent)
Sept 2018- Pyotr Verzilov- activist (poisoned)
March 2018- Sergei Skripal- Russian military intelligence officer and his daughter (poisoned in the UK
by FSB)
Feb 2015- Boris Nemtsov – politician -(shot near the Kremlin)
July 2009- Natalya Estemirova – human rights activist kidnapped and shot
Nov 2006- Alex Litvineko – (former agent poisoned and killed in London after revealing Putin was behind the 1999 apartment bombings in Moscow)
Oct 2006- Anna Politkovskaya- journalist – (murdered in her elevator on Putin’s bday, had previously been arrested and poisoned)
March 2005 Aslan Maskhadov – President of Chechnya – grenade
July 2003- Yuri Shchekochikhin – Yuri Shchekochikhin -(poisoned)
April 2003- Sergei Yushenkov – politician (shot outside his home)