FILE PHOTO: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny pays respect to founder of Russia鈥檚 oldest human rights group and Sakharov Prize winner Lyudmila Alexeyeva in Moscow, Russia, on December 11, 2018. Navalny, Russia鈥檚 most prominent opposition leader, died on Friday, February 16, 2024, after collapsing and losing consciousness the Arctic Circle jail where he was serving a long term. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
MOSCOW 鈥� Alexei Navalny, Russia鈥檚 most prominent opposition leader, died on Friday after collapsing and losing consciousness at the penal colony north of the Arctic Circle where he was serving a long jail term, the Russian prison service said.
Opposition leader
Navalny, 47, became the leading figure among Russia鈥檚 splintered opposition.
Supporters cast him as a Russian version of South Africa鈥檚 Nelson Mandela who would one day be freed from jail to lead the country.
He earned admiration from many in Russian opposition circles for voluntarily returning to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he underwent treatment for what Western laboratory tests showed was an attempt to poison him with a nerve agent in Siberia.
READ: Putin opponent Alexei Navalny dies in Arctic jail, Russia says
Rise to prominence
A former lawyer, Navalny rose to prominence with blogs that exposed what he said was vast corruption across the Russian elite, describing Russia as ruled by 鈥渃rooks and thieves.鈥�
He participated in Russian nationalist marches in the 2000s. Calls for restrictions on immigration and criticism over what some viewed as his overly nationalist views prompted his expulsion from the liberal Yabloko opposition party in 2007.
He lampooned President Vladimir Putin鈥檚 elite and exposed some of the opulence of the lifestyles of senior officials, using the internet and even drones to illustrate what he described as their vast holdings and luxury property.
When demonstrations against Putin flared in December 2011, after an election tainted by fraud accusations, he was one of the first protest leaders arrested.
Navalny long forecast Russia could face seismic political turmoil, including revolution, because he said Putin had built a brittle system of personal rule reliant on sycophancy and corruption.
READ: 鈥楶aid with his life鈥�: World reacts to Navalny鈥檚 death
What does the Kremlin say?
The Kremlin said Putin had been informed of his death.
The Kremlin dismissed Navalny鈥檚 allegations of vast corruption and Putin鈥檚 personal wealth. Navalny鈥檚 movement is outlawed and most of his senior allies have fled Russia and now live in Europe.
Russian officials cast Navalny as an extremist who was a puppet of the US Central Intelligence Agency which they say is intent on trying to sow the seeds of revolution to weaken Russia and make it a client state of the West.
Navalny was detained countless times for organizing public rallies, and prosecuted repeatedly on charges including corruption, embezzlement, and fraud. He said the accusations and convictions were politically motivated.
Navalny had an extra 19 years in a maximum security penal colony added to his jail term in 2023 in a criminal case that he said was designed to cow the Russian people into political submission.
READ: Biden says Putin and 鈥榟is thugs鈥� responsible for Navalny鈥檚 death
Poisoning
In August 2020, Navalny fell ill on a flight from Tomsk, in Siberia, to Moscow. The pilot made an emergency landing, saving his life, and Navalny was flown to Berlin, where he was treated for the effects of a neurotoxin that German military tests showed to be Novichok, a poison developed in the Soviet Union.
Putin dismissed a joint media investigation that said it had identified a team of assassins from Russia鈥檚 FSB security service. 鈥淚f someone had wanted to poison him, they would have finished him off,鈥� he said.
Family
Navalny鈥檚 wife is Yulia. Their daughter is called Darya, and their son is called Zakhar.
Key Navalny quotes
ON THE UKRAINE WAR:
鈥淭his is a stupid war which your Putin started,鈥� Navalny told an appeal court in Moscow via video link from a corrective penal colony in 2022. 鈥淭his war was built on lies.鈥�
鈥淥ne madman has got his claws into Ukraine and I do not know what he wants to do with it 鈥� this crazy thief.鈥�
ON PUTIN:
鈥淐orruption is the foundation of contemporary Russia, it is the foundation of Mr Putin鈥檚 political power,鈥� Navalny told Reuters in an interview in 2011.
ON RUSSIA:
鈥淥nce the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy described the structure of power in Russia: 鈥榯he villains who robbed their own people got together, recruited soldiers and judges to guard their orgy, and now they鈥檙e having a feast鈥�. This brilliant phrase precisely describes what is happing in our country.鈥�
In 2023, he admonished the Russian elite for its venality, expressing hatred for those who he said squandered a historic opportunity to reform after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
He dissected Russia鈥檚 post-Soviet history, including the legacies of the most powerful figures of the 1990s who became known as the reformers who sought to lay the foundations of capitalism and the oligarchs who won fabulous fortunes.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 stop myself from fiercely, wildly hating those who sold, pissed away, and squandered the historical chance that our country had in the early nineties,鈥� Navalny said.
ON FEAR AND AMBITION:
鈥淲hy should I be afraid?鈥� he said in 2011 when asked about the dangers of challenging the Kremlin.
When asked by Reuters about his ambition, he winced but said: 鈥淚 would like to be president, but there are no elections in Russia.鈥�
ON DEATH:
鈥淚f they decide to kill me then it means we are incredibly strong and we need to use that power and not give up,鈥� he once told CNN. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 realize how strong we actually are.鈥�