Alexei Navalny, "Putin's most vocal critic" has died

[merry]

Russia's most significant opposition leader for the past decade, Alexei Navalny, has died in an Arctic Circle jail, the prison service said.

Seen as President Vladimir Putin's most vociferous critic, Navalny was serving a 19-year jail term on charges widely considered politically motivated.

He was moved to one of Russia's toughest penal colonies late last year.

The prison service in the Yamalo-Nenets district said Navalny had "felt unwell" after a walk on Friday.

He had "almost immediately lost consciousness", it said in a statement, adding that an emergency medical team had immediately been called and tried to resuscitate him but without success.

"The emergency doctors declared the prisoner dead. Cause of death is being established."

Navalny, 47, was last seen only a day ago, looking well and laughing during a court hearing via video link.

His lawyer Leonid Solovyov told Russian media he would not be commenting yet, although Navalny's close aide Leonid Volkov wrote on X: "Russian authorities publish a confession that they killed Alexei Navalny in prison. We do not have any way to confirm it or to prove this isn't true."

BBC - overview of Navalny's life

[merry]

I think he was quite the hero. I wish he had never come back to Russia.

Navalny, for one, said he never doubted he would come back to his homeland. “The question ‘to return or not’ never stood before me,” he said in an Instagram post on Jan. 14. “Mainly because I never left. I ended up in Germany, having arrived in an intensive care box, for one reason: they tried to kill me.”

His close colleague, Vladimir Ashurkov, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation living in exile in London, tells TIME that back in August he entertained the idea of discussing with Navalny how he could continue his fight from the safety of another country. “But when we started talking, I understood this was not an option. His fight is in Russia, he avowed.

[OurCreature]

I wish he had never come back to Russia.

So do I. However, I'm sure he knew exactly what would happen to him if he returned to Holy Mother Russia and I think he knew there would be lots of publicity about whatever happened to him, so that he could use it to demonstrate just what sort of Mafia boss Putin really is.

I'm not at all surprised that Putin's leading cheerleader in the West is Donald Trump; both are aggressive nasty bullies with no respect for legality and observance of the law.

[Furby]

Why would the Russians keep him in prison for 4 years and then bump him off though why not just do it right away. It's all very odd. If he had been in prison for 4 years he couldn't have been about to do or say anything new could he.

[Patience]

Aren’t presidential elections coming up in Russia shortly? Maybe a way of showing that dissent will not be tolerated? I know he couldn’t stand because of his criminal conviction, but intimidation is so on brand.

[eccles]

I'm not at all surprised that Putin's leading cheerleader in the West is Donald Trump

I don't think he is. He was strongly against Germany building the Nordstream 2 pipeline because it created a very risky dependence on Russia for its energy. He was, perhaps by luck more than judgement, proven right on this occasion and ignoring him cost Germany dearly.
I think his relationship with Putin was mostly due to his overambitious ego, delusional narcissism and a misguided impression of his powers of persuasion. He attempted the same with Kim Jong Un, with similarly unimpressive results.

[OurCreature]

I'd forgotten about Nordstream, Eccs - thanks for the reminder!