Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny is seen on a display by way of video hyperlink from the IK-2 corrective penal colony in Pokrov earlier than a courtroom listening to to think about an enchantment towards his jail sentence, in Moscow, Russia Could 17, 2022.
Evgenia Novozhenina | Reuters
Imprisoned Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has died, Russian state information company Tass reported on Friday, citing the jail service of the Yamalo-Nenets area the place he had been serving his sentence.
The jail service reportedly mentioned the reason for Navalny’s dying was nonetheless to be established.
Alexey Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh mentioned in a Google-translated replace on the X social media platform that “We have no affirmation of this but. Alexey’s lawyer is now flying to Kharp. As quickly as we’ve any data, we are going to report it.”
CNBC couldn’t independently confirm the report.
Navalny, 47, was one in all Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics and had been serving a 19-year jail time period.
Navalny “felt unwell after a stroll, virtually instantly dropping consciousness,” Interfax reported, citing a press release from the workplace for the jail service of the Yamalo-Nenets area.
The assertion mentioned “all the mandatory resuscitation measures have been carried out, however didn’t yield constructive outcomes.” It added that an ambulance was known as and emergency docs later confirmed Navalny’s dying.
The Investigative Division of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug area mentioned Friday on Telegram that it’s organizing a procedural verify into the dying of Navalny, in response to a Google-translated submit.
Navalny, who beforehand condemned Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as “probably the most silly and mindless warfare of the twenty first century,” was moved to an Arctic penal colony late final yr. It’s extensively thought-about to be one of many nation’s hardest prisons.
Navalny has been held behind bars in Russia since 2021, after spending practically half a yr in Germany recovering from a nerve agent poisoning in August 2020.
