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Rabat – Alexei Navalny, one of the most renowned leaders of Russia’s opposition movement and fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, has died in prison at the age of 47, according to an announcement by the Russian prison service.
Navalny was serving his sentence at a penal colony in Siberia for violating parole from an earlier conviction that he called “politically motivated.” His death marks a major blow to Russia’s beleaguered opposition movement.
Navalny rose to prominence as an anti-corruption activist, using social media to expose alleged graft among Russia’s political elite. His investigations into the lavish wealth of Putin’s inner circle resonated with younger, urban Russians and posed a political threat to the Kremlin.
In 2020, Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent called Novichok in an assassination attempt he blamed directly on Putin. After recovering in Germany, Navalny defiantly returned to Russia in 2021 despite the risks of arrest. His detention sparked mass nationwide protests that challenged the Kremlin’s tight grip on power.
From behind bars, Navalny kept speaking out through social media and court appearances, denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and accusing Putin of corruption even as his health reportedly deteriorated in the harsh prison conditions.
Navalny’s supporters have described him as a “heroic figure” willing to “sacrifice” his freedom to challenge Putin’s authoritarian rule.
But he was not without controversy. Early in his career, nationalist statements against immigrants lost him sympathy on the left, and he was barred from mainstream politics.
Navalny’s extreme nationalist views in the late 2000s were shown through his derogatory and xenophobic comments about Muslims and migrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus.
In a 2007 video, he referred to Muslims as “cockroaches” while advocating for gun rights. Though he later distanced himself from attending far-right rallies and toned down his rhetoric, some critics believe traces of Islamophobia and xenophobia remain in Navalny’s worldview.
While Navalny inspired a tech-savvy generation of young Russians with his modern media strategies, some analysts say he failed to win over older demographics swayed by state media portraying him as a criminal.
Navalny’s death in custody at age 47 cut short the political career of one of Putin’s sharpest and most persistent critics. Supporters predicted Navalny would have emerged as a Nelson Mandela-like figure had he survived imprisonment.
