What Navalny said about Russia, Death and Putin

Russia’s most prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny died on Friday after collapsing and becoming unconscious in the colony north of the Arctic Circle, where he was serving a long prison sentence, the Russian prison service said.

opposition leader

Navalny, 47, became a leading figure among Russia’s fragmented opposition.
Supporters described him as a Russian version of South Africa’s Nelson Mandela who would one day be freed from prison to lead the country.

He also earned praise from many in Russian opposition circles for voluntarily returning to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he also attempted to poison him with a nerve agent in Siberia after Western laboratory tests revealed that was treated

rise to prominence

A former lawyer, Navalny rose to prominence through blogs that also exposed widespread corruption in Russia’s elite class, describing Russia as ruled by “crooks and thieves”.
He also participated in Russian nationalist marches in the 2000s. He was also expelled from the liberal Yabloko opposition party in 2007 after calling for restrictions on immigration and being criticized by some for his extreme nationalist views.
He criticized President Putin’s elitism and exposed some of the opulence of senior officials’ lifestyles, using the Internet and even drones to describe their vast wealth and luxury assets. .
When protests against Putin erupted in 2011 after an election marred by allegations of fraud, he was one of the first protest leaders to be arrested.

Navalny has long predicted that Russia would face seismic political upheaval, including revolution, as he said Putin has created a brittle system of personal rule too dependent on sycophancy and corruption.
What does the Kremlin say?
The Kremlin said that Putin has also been informed about his death.
The Kremlin rejected Navalny’s allegations of widespread corruption and Putin’s personal wealth. Navalny’s movement is illegal and most of his senior associates have fled Russia and now live in Europe.

Navalny has been detained countless times for holding public rallies and repeatedly prosecuted on charges including corruption, embezzlement and fraud. He said the charges and conviction were politically motivated.
Navalny was sentenced to an additional 19 years in prison in a maximum security penal colony in 2023 in a criminal case he said was designed to force Russian people into political submission.