Alexey Navalny attends a rally in memory of politician Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in 2015, in Moscow on Feb. 24, 2019.Tatyana Makeyeva/Reuters
Alexey Navalny, Russia’s top opposition leader and President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died in prison on Friday, a statement from the Federal Penitentiary Service said.
Navalny, who was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism, felt unwell after a walk and collapsed, it said. The politician’s team had no immediate confirmation of his death.
Navalny was moved in December from his former prison in central Russia to to a “special regime” penal colony – the highest security level of prisons in Russia – above the Arctic Circle.
In a span of a decade, he went from being the Kremlin’s biggest foe to Russia’s most prominent political prisoner.
Here’s a look at key events in Navalny’s life, political activism and the charges he has faced through the years:
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny pays his respects to the founder of Russia’s oldest human rights group and Sakharov Prize winner Lyudmila Alexeyeva in Moscow on December 11, 2018.Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
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Alexey Navalny appears via a video link from the Arctic penal colony where he is serving a 19-year sentence on Jan. 11, 2024.Alexander Zemlianichenko/The Associated Press
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Yulia Navalnaya, wife of late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, attends the Munich Security Conference, on the day it was announced that he is dead.KAI PFAFFENBACH/Getty Images
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A man holds a poster with a portrait of Alexey Navalny during a protest in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin, Germany on Feb. 16, 2024.Markus Schreiber/The Associated Press
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Alexey Navalny founded RosPil in 2010, an anti-corruption project run by a team of lawyers that analyzes spending of state agencies and companies, exposing violations and contesting them in court in Moscow, Russia.Alexander Zemlianichenko/The Associated Press
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Anti-Kremlin blogger Alexey Navalny speaks during a rally against the December 4 parliamentary elections in Moscow, on December 24, 2011.KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/Getty Images
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Police detain protest leader Alexey Navalny, seen wearing hooded jacket, after a rally in Pushkin Square in Moscow on March 5, 2012.Maria Turchenkova/The Associated Press
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Policemen detain Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny (C), after he visited the city's election commission office to submit documents to get registered as a mayoral election candidate, in Moscow July 10, 2013.Grigory Dukor/Reuters
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Russian opposition activist Alexey Navalny's wife Yulia, right, and his brother Oleg Navalny, center, comfort Alexei at a court in Moscow, Russia on Dec. 30, 2014.The Associated Press
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Alexey Navalny takes a selfie picture as he attends a memorial march marking the one-year anniversary of the assassination of Russian politician Boris Nemtsov in central Moscow, on February 27, 2016.KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/Getty Images
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Photo taken on April 27, 2017 of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny after unknown attackers doused him with green antiseptic outside a conference venue in Moscow, Russia.The Associated Press
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Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, who was arrested during March 26 anti-corruption rally, gestures during an appeal hearing at a court in Moscow on March 30, 2017.KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/Getty Images
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Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, centre, attends a rally in Moscow, Russia on Jan. 28, 2018.Evgeny Feldman/The Associated Press
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From his instagram account Alexei Navalny, shows himself, centre, and his wife Yulia, right, with medical workers in a hospital hospital in Berlin, Germany on Sept. 15, 2020 after he recovered from being poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent, German authorities confirmed.The Canadian Press
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Policemen detain Alexey Navalny, on June 12, 2019 in Moscow, during a rally in support of investigative journalist Ivan Golunov, who was accused of drug offences and later freed from house arrest.MAXIM SHEMETOV/Reuters
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Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny and his wife Yulia Navalnaya are seen on board a plane during a flight from Berlin to Moscow, January 17, 2021.Maria Vasilyeva/Reuters
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Opposition leader Alexey Navalny is escorted out of a police station on January 18, 2021, in Khimki, outside Moscow.ALEXANDER NEMENOV/Getty Images
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Law enforcement officers clash with participants during a rally in support of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny in Moscow on January 23, 2021.MAXIM SHEMETOV/Reuters
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Photo provided by the Moscow City Court, Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny makes a heart gesture during a hearing in Moscow on Feb. 3, 2021.The Associated Press
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Alexey Navalny attends a hearing to consider an appeal against an earlier court decision to change his suspended sentence to a real prison term, in Moscow on February 20, 2021.MAXIM SHEMETOV/Reuters
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A sign for the settlement of Kharp, where Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny serves his jail term in the IK-3 penal colony, in the Yamal-Nenets Region, Russia on December 29, 2023.STRINGER/Reuters
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Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny is seen on a screen via video link from the IK-2 corrective penal colony in Pokrov before a court hearing to consider an appeal against his prison sentence, in Moscow on May 17, 2022.EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA/Reuters
