Vladimir Putin’s main opponent Alexei Navalny dies in prison

Alexei Navalny, the main opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died on Friday in Jarp prison, where he was serving his sentence, Russia’s prison service reported.According to the Federal Penitentiary Service in a statement, Navalny, 47, felt unwell after a walk in penal colony No. 3. “Almost immediately he lost consciousness. Medical workers at the institution arrived immediately and called an emergency medical team,” they said. “The necessary resuscitation procedures were performed, which did not yield any results. Emergency room doctors confirmed the condemned man’s death. The cause of death is being established,” officials added. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Putin had already been “informed” of the death of the opposition leader and indicated that he had no details about the causes of the event. The team working with Navalny said it was not notified of his death and said a lawyer was on his way to the prison where he was being held. Navalny was arrested in January 2021 upon his return to Russia, after recovering in Germany from an alleged assassination attempt by poisoning in Russia that he attributed to Putin, something the Kremlin denied. Since his arrest, he has been sentenced to high prison terms after being accused of “extremism” and “fraud”. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison in August last year and was held in a maximum-security prison near Moscow until mid-December until he was transferred to Jarp in the Russian Arctic. A staunch opponent of Putin, he called for a protest against the president at the country’s polling stations during the next election day in March.

Original source in Spanish