Imprisoned Russian dissident Alexey Navalny has reportedly died in the IK-3 prison colony, north of the Arctic Circle, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, where he was serving out a 19-year prison sentence.
“Jailed Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny has died, the prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets Region, where he had been serving his sentence, reported on Friday afternoon.
The cause of death is being established. However, according to an RT Russian service source, the opposition figure had a blood clot.
Navalny was jailed in early 2021, over a long-standing fraud case involving French retailer Yves Rocher. The previous summer he attracted major international attention after an alleged poisoning in Siberia, which led to his transfer to Germany. Upon returning, he was sentenced to the first of several prison terms.
Initially, he was placed in a high-security facility in Vladimir Region. In 2023 he was sentenced to 19 years ‘special regime’ for ‘extremism’. Late last year he was transferred to the ‘Polar Wolf’ colony in Yamalo-Nenets.
The Kremlin said that President Vladimir Putin has been informed of Navalny’s death. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov referred questions to the Federal Penitentiary Service, adding that the cause was currently unclear.
A former Russian nationalist activist, Navalny first came to attention as one of the leaders of the ‘Russian march’, a far-right rally previously held annually. He subsequently took a prominent role in the liberal-driven 2011-12 protests in Russia, which centered on Moscow’s Bolotnaya square”. -RT
Given that Navalny was caught discussing plans for mass protests, civil initiatives, propaganda, and establishing contacts with elites with British MI6 agent, James William Thomas Ford, the over-the-top reaction of the current U.S. administration to the British intelligence asset’s alleged manner of death strikes one as rather hypocritical in light of America’s muted response to the death of Zelenskyy critic Gonzalo Lira in a Ukrainian prison last month, as well as the imprisonment of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in the United Kingdom and persecution of American NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, who was granted political asylum in Russia after he exposed secret files in 2013 that revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations being carried out by the U.S. government.