The Kremlin's number 1 opponent, Alexeï Navalny, died on Friday, according to the authorities, in his Arctic prison.
His death comes one month before the presidential election which should once again cement the power of Vladimir Putin.
His death after three years of detention and a poisoning of which he accused the Kremlin deprives an already bloodless opposition of its figurehead, the Kremlin having orchestrated a merciless repression of all its detractors, in particular since the start of its assault against the Ukraine, two years ago.
The Russian authorities provided almost no details on the conditions of Navalny's death, limiting themselves to a terse press release to assure that they had done everything to resuscitate the opponent, in fragile health, after feeling unwell.
“On February 16, 2024, in penitentiary center No. 3, prisoner Navalny AA felt unwell after a walk and almost immediately lost consciousness,” the FSIN (Russian Prison Service) of the Yamal Arctic region said, assuring that the emergency services had tried to save him for more than “thirty minutes”.
“All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out but did not produce a positive result.
Emergency doctors pronounced the patient dead.
The causes of death are being established,” he said in this press release.
Poisoned in 2020
The 47-year-old activist was serving a 19-year prison sentence for “extremism” in a remote Arctic penal colony, under very difficult conditions.
His multiple trials had been widely denounced as political and a way of punishing him for his opposition to Vladimir Putin.
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Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny died in prison
This lawyer had made the fight against corruption the fight of his life.
First on his blog in 2006, against the affairs which undermine the energy sector.
In 2013, this father of two children, very present on social networks, ran for the Moscow mayoral elections then for the Russian presidential election in 2018. His discomfort on board a plane which brought him back to Moscow, due to a poisoning in 2020, had reinforced his status.
Transferred in a coma to Germany for treatment, he chose to return to Russia after his convalescence, and was arrested on January 17, 2021 in Moscow.
A skillful communicator, the opponent had two days later broadcast an investigation into the immense and sumptuous property from which, according to him, Vladimir Putin benefited.
Three years later, the report has more than 129 million views on YouTube.
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During various hearings in trials in which he participated by video in recent months, this tall blond with piercing blue eyes appeared thin and aged.
He suffered health problems linked to a hunger strike and the consequences of the poisoning.
His supporters were not informed of his death in prison, said his spokesperson Kira Iarmich, specifying that one of their lawyers was going there.
One of the opponent's counsel, Leonid Soloviev, indicated that a defender of the opponent had been able to see him on Wednesday and "at the time everything was normal".
Putin “informed” of his death
Vladimir Putin, traveling in the Urals on Friday, was informed of the death, according to his spokesperson Dmitri Peskov.
“The president is informed,” he said, according to state news agency TASS, adding that the prison service was handling “verifications” and “clarifications” about the cause of death.
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In the West, many officials immediately denounced the responsibility of Russian power in his death.
Navalny “has just been brutally assassinated by the Kremlin,” the president of Latvia even said.
For the head of French diplomacy, he “paid with his life for his resistance to a system of oppression”.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak deplored a “huge tragedy” for the Russian people.
Alexei Navalny paid with his life for his resistance to a system of oppression.
His death in a penal colony reminds us of the reality of Vladimir Putin's regime.
To his family, his loved ones and the Russian people, France presents its condolences.
— Stéphane Séjourné (@steph_sejourne) February 16, 2024
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was “very saddened” and judged that he had “paid for his courage with his life”.
Unfailing determination
Prison had not dampened his determination.
During the hearings and in messages broadcast on social networks through his team, he continues to insult Vladimir Putin, described as "grandpa hiding in a bunker", because the Russian president rarely appears in public .
In his trial for “extremism”, he castigated “the stupidest and most senseless war of the 21st century”, referring to the Russian assault on Ukraine.
In his online messages, he jokes about the bullying that the prison administration subjects him to.
In a message on February 1 posted by his team on social networks, he called for demonstrations throughout Russia during the presidential election scheduled for March 15 to 17 and which should allow Vladimir Putin to remain in power until 2030. at least.
Symbol of Russian repression
The Russian president's victory seems certain because opponents, led by Navalny, have been imprisoned or driven into exile in recent years, and repression has further increased since the start of Moscow's assault on Ukraine, launched on February 24, 2022.
The best known of them is Vladimir Kara-Mourza, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence and was poisoned twice.
He also suffers from serious health problems in detention.
Alexei Navalny (here in 2019) was one of the best-known opponents of the Russian regime.
AFP/Vasily MAXIMOV
Another opponent with a certain notoriety is Ilia Iachine.
He was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for denouncing “the murder of civilians” in the Ukrainian town of Boutcha, near kyiv.
Other Putin critics have been murdered.
Boris Nemtsov was shot and killed at the foot of the Kremlin walls in February 2015, an assassination which has never been clarified.
The opposition includes other figures but they have gone into exile, like Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oil tycoon, who spent ten years in prison after opposing Putin in the early 2000s.