West, critics blame Russia for opposition leader’s death
Moscow – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died yesterday in the Arctic prison colony where he was serving a 19year term.
Western governments immediately attacked the Kremlin over the death of the most outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin.
Navalny, 47, lost consciousness after a walk and could not be revived by medics, said Russia’s prison service.
“Navalny felt bad after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness. Medical staff arrived immediately and an ambulance team was called,” it said.
“Resuscitation measures were carried out which did not yield positive results. Paramedics confirmed the death of the convict. The causes of death are being established.”
Navalny was Russia’s most prominent opposition leader. He won a huge following with his criticism of corruption under Putin. Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had opened an investigation into the death.
Navalny’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh said his team had not been informed of his death.
“Alexei’s lawyer is now flying to Kharp,” where his prison colony is, she said.
Russian news agencies reported that Putin had been informed of Navalny’s death.
Western governments and Russian opposition figures have blamed Russia for his death.
Latvia’s president said Navalny had been “brutally murdered by the Kremlin”. Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide wrote on X: “The Russian government bears a heavy responsibility.”
France’s foreign minister said Navalny had paid with his life for resisting oppression.
In a string of cases, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison on charges condemned by independent rights groups and in the West as retribution for his opposition to the Kremlin. –
This sounds like something from the files of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s unveiling of apartheid-era crimes: the prisoner “felt bad after a walk” but after “resuscitation measures” were carried out, “without positive results”, the prisoner was declared dead. “The causes of death are being established.” This wasn’t a Neil Aggett, Ahmed Timol or Steve Biko, this was Alexei Navalny, a 47-year-old Russian dissident and implacable foe of President Vladimir Putin, who was serving a 19-year term in an “Arctic prison colony”.
No doubt, there will be a thorough and diligent investigation by the Russian authorities, as there was in South Africa, after Biko died in police custody in 1977. The presiding magistrate in the Steve Biko inquest found that “no act or omission involving an offence by any person” was responsible for his death.
Those who challenge Putin do not seem to have a long life expectancy, as Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin – leader of a brief mutiny against Moscow – may have found out in August last year when his jet was blown out of the sky.
One wonders if the Russian leader would admire SA’s then police minister, Jimmy Kruger, who said of Biko’s demise: “His death leaves me cold.”