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Putin said he could not guarantee that Navalny would get out of prison alive.
Alexei Navalny, the leader of the Russian opposition and the biggest opponent of President Vladimir Putin, died in prison today...
Navalny became known as the most outspoken critic of Russia's Kremlin after leading a series of anti-corruption investigations into key members of the Russian elite.
His 2017 exposé of the lavish lifestyle of Dmitry Medvedev, a former president and prime minister, led to mass protests. And an investigation into a luxury "secret palace" on Russia's Black Sea coast, believed to be owned by Putin, sparked a wave of outrage across Russia in 2021.
Navalny tried to run against Putin in the 2018 presidential election but was barred from running because of a 2014 conviction for embezzlement, which he vehemently denied was designed to keep him out of politics.
Russian officials emphasized that they did not refer to Navalny by name to avoid raising his public profile.
While on a business trip to Russia in August 2020, Navalny was poisoned with a military nerve agent in an assassination attempt, which he directly blamed on Putin. The Russian opposition leader was able to survive the ordeal thanks to his family's insistence that he be flown to Germany, where he underwent treatment and a long rehabilitation process. The Kremlin denied any involvement in his poisoning, which was condemned by Western governments and led to a further strain in relations with Russia.
However, Navalny decided to return to Russia in early 2021. He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for a parole violation related to that sentence. The decision came days after more than 5,000 people were arrested across Russia at rallies in support of Navalny. His allies have also been persecuted, and his anti-corruption fund was declared an extremist organization months after his conviction, forcing most of its senior staff to flee the country.
Navalny was tried on new charges of fraud and contempt of court and sentenced to another nine years in prison. Then, in August, he was sentenced to a further 19 years in a maximum-security penal colony on extremism charges, in what his allies and the international community called a Kremlin campaign to keep him imprisoned for life. Navalny denied all the charges against him, considering them to be politically motivated.
His supporters repeatedly raised concerns about his treatment in custody, including access to proper medical care and frequent confinement in a small punishment cell.
In an interview with NBC News in 2021, Putin said he could not guarantee that Navalny would get out of prison alive. But even in prison, Navalny continued to defy Putin.
With his death today, the Russian opposition remains fractured, mired by years of harassment and prosecution, without a clear leadership figure.
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