Putin critic Alexei Navalny dead inside jail

Russia's jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny reportedly died on February 16. The Vladimir Putin critic was serving a 19-year-term at the Arctic prison colony, which is considered one of the toughest jails in Russia. He was 47.

The prison authorities said that Navalny "felt unwell" after a walk at the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, about 1,900 km (1,200 miles) north east of Moscow. The officials further said that they were trying to determine the cause of the death.

The prison service said that Navalny had lost consciousness almost immediately.

"The medical staff of the institution arrived immediately, and an ambulance team was called," the prison service said, according to Reuters news agency.

"All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, which did not yield positive results. Doctors of the ambulance stated the death of the convict."

"The causes of death are being established," the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District said in a statement.

The Kremlin said that Vladimir Putin has been informed of Navalny's death. The outspoken Russian leader was poisoned twice before. Both times, Russia was blamed.

Navalny earned admiration from Russia's disparate opposition for voluntarily returning to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he had been treated for what Western laboratory tests showed was an attempt to poison him with a nerve agent.

Navalny said at the time that he was poisoned in Siberia in August 2020. The Kremlin denied trying to kill him and said there was no evidence he was poisoned with a nerve agent.

Navalny rose to prominence more than a decade ago by going against the elite class around President Vladimir Putin and voicing allegations of corruption on a vast scale.

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