Alexey Navalny’s spokesperson confirmed Saturday that the Russian opposition chief had died at a distant Arctic penal colony and stated he was ”murdered,” however it’s unclear the place his physique is.
An official observe handed to Navalny’s mom said that he died at 2:17 p.m. native time Friday, Kira Yarmysh stated. She added that an worker of the jail colony stated that Navalny’s physique was taken to the close by metropolis of Salekhard as a part of a probe into his demise. She demanded that his physique be handed over to his household.
When a lawyer and Navalny’s mom visited the morgue in Salekhard, it was closed, Navalny’s group stated, writing on their Telegram channel. The lawyer known as the morgue and was instructed that Navalny’s physique isn’t there, his group stated. One other of Navalny’s legal professionals went to Salekhard’s Investigative Committee and was instructed that the reason for Navalny’s demise has not but been established and that new investigations are being executed with the outcomes to be launched subsequent week, Yarmysh stated.
”We demand that Alexey Navalny’s physique be handed over to his household instantly,” Yarmysh wrote on X, beforehand Twitter. The trigger and the circumstances of Navalny’s demise Friday stay largely unclear.
Dmitri Lovetsky / AP
Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service reported that Navalny felt sick after a stroll and have become unconscious on the penal colony within the city of Kharp, within the Yamalo-Nenets area about 1,200 miles northeast of Moscow. An ambulance arrived, however he could not be revived. The reason for demise continues to be ”being established,” it stated.
Maria Pevchikh, head of the board of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis, stated that the opposition chief would ”dwell on endlessly in tens of millions of hearts.”
”Navalny was murdered. We nonetheless do not know the way we’ll carry on dwelling, however collectively, we’ll consider one thing,” she wrote on X.
Arrests continued Saturday after greater than 100 individuals had been detained in varied Russian cities Friday once they got here to put flowers in reminiscence of Navalny at memorials to the victims of Soviet-era purges, in response to OVD-Data, a bunch that displays political repression in Russia.
The tributes had been eliminated in a single day, however individuals continued trickling in with flowers on Saturday. In Moscow, a big group of individuals chanted ”disgrace” as police dragged a screaming lady from the group, video shared on social media confirmed.
Greater than 10 individuals had been detained at a memorial in St. Petersburg, together with a priest who got here to conduct a service for Navalny there.
In different cities throughout the nation, police cordoned off among the memorials and officers had been taking footage of those that got here and writing down their private information in a transparent intimidation try.
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Navalny had been jailed since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow to face sure arrest after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. He was later convicted thrice, saying every case was politically motivated, and acquired a sentence of 19 years for extremism.
After the final verdict, Navalny stated he understood he was ”serving a life sentence, which is measured by the size of my life or the size of lifetime of this regime.”
The information of Navalny’s demise comes lower than a month earlier than an election that may give President Vladimir Putin one other six years in energy.
It exhibits ”that the sentence in Russia now for opposition isn’t merely imprisonment, however demise,” stated Nigel Gould-Davies, a former British ambassador to Belarus and senior fellow for Russia & Eurasia on the Worldwide Institute for Strategic Research in London.
Hours after Navalny’s demise was reported, his spouse, Yulia Navalnaya, made a dramatic look at a safety convention in Germany the place many world leaders had gathered.
She stated she was not sure if she might imagine the information from official Russian sources, ”but when that is true, I would like Putin and everybody round Putin, Putin’s buddies, his authorities to know that they are going to bear accountability for what they did to our nation, to my household and to my husband.”
U.S. President Joe Biden stated Washington would not know precisely what occurred, ”however there isn’t any doubt that the demise of Navalny was a consequence of one thing Putin and his thugs did.”
The Kremlin bristled on the outpouring of anger from world leaders, with Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov as ”inadmissible and outrageous,” noting that medics have not issued their verdict on the reason for Navalny’s demise.