Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has died in prison, the local Russian prison service announced on Friday.
“On February 16, 2024, in correctional colony No 3, convict A A Navalny felt unwell after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness,” a from the prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region reads.
“The institution’s medical workers immediately arrived and an emergency medical team was called.
“All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, but they did not yield positive results.
“Emergency medical doctors confirmed the death of the convict,” it adds.
Navalny was arrested in 2021 upon his return to Russia from Germany where he had been treated for a suspected assassination attempt by poison and sentenced to 19 years in a penal colony on charges of extremism.
He had initially been serving his sentence in the Vladimir region of central Russia, about 230 kilometres east of Moscow, but was transferred late last year to a “special regime” penal colony – the highest security level of prisons in Russia – above the Arctic Circle.
