Aleksei A. Navalny, the leading opposition figure in Russia, died in prison, Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service said

NEW YORK TIMES Feb. 16, 2024, 7:24 a.m. 5 minutes ago Aleksei Navalny Outspoken Putin Critic Is Dead, Russian Authorities Say Aleksei A. Navalny, the leading opposition figure in Russia, died in prison, Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service said. His spokeswoman said his team could not immediately confirm his death. Navalny’s death is reported by Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service. Aleksei A. Navalny, the most outspoken domestic critic of President Vladimir V. Putin, has died in prison, Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service said on Friday. It said that Mr. Navalny, 47, had lost consciousness after taking a walk in the Arctic prison where he was moved late last year. “The facility’s medical staff immediately arrived and an ambulance brigade was called,” the penitentiary service’s statement said. “All necessary resuscitation measures were taken, which did not lead to positive results. The ambulance doctors confirmed the death of the convict.” Mr. Putin’s spokesman said that the death had been reported to Mr. Putin, according to the Tass state news service. Putin is now appearing on state television, holding a Q&A with students and industrial workers at a factory in the Chelyabinsk region in the Urals mountains. He hasn’t yet commented about Navalny. A Russian court handed Navalny a new, 19-year sentence last August on charges of supporting “extremism” and ordered him imprisoned under the harshest conditions. He then disappeared for three weeks in December as the Russian authorities transferred him to a remote penal colony in the Arctic. Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s longtime chief of staff, says he’s not ready to believe the news about Navalny’s death. “We have no reason to believe state propaganda,” Volkov wrote on the social platform X. “If this is true, then it’s not ‘Navalny died,’ but ‘Putin killed Navalny,’ and only that. But I don’t trust them one penny.” On Russian state television, the host of a political talk show read out the prison service’s statement reporting Navalny’s death. “In any case, the most careful investigation will be done,” the host, Vyacheslav Nikonov, said on air. We still don’t have confirmation of Navalny’s death from his team, but the Russian authorities are reporting in unison that he has died. The Investigative Committee of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug — the Arctic region where Navalny’s prison is — issued a statement saying that it was conducting a “procedural check into the death of A.A. Navalny.” Navalny’s spokeswoman said on social media that his team could not immediately confirm his death. “We don’t have any confirmation of this yet,” the spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said, adding that a lawyer was traveling to the remote town where the prison is. “As soon as we have any information, we will report it.”