Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died February 16 in a Russian maximum security prison. He was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic and political opponent, as well as the nation’s foremost anti-corruption campaigner.
After a decade of harassment by the authorities, in 2020 Navalny survived an assassination attempt in Russia – poisoning from the chemical agent Novichok. After recovering in Germany, he insisted on returning to Russia where he was immediately arrested and imprisoned on spurious, politically motivated charges.
In August 2023, Navalny was sentenced to an additional 19 years on charges of extremism. He had been serving time in a prison camp east of Moscow under extremely harsh conditions, until December when he was moved to the highest-security level facility in the country near the Arctic Circle - a remote area known for its severe winters.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken decried Navalny’s untimely passing and lauded his advocacy of democratic principles:
“For more than a decade, Russian Government, Putin, have persecuted, poisoned, and imprisoned Aleksey Navalny, and now reports of his death. ... [O]ur hearts go out to his wife and to his family. Beyond that, his death in a Russian prison and the fixation and fear of one man only underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built.”
President Joe Biden said, “What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality.”
“No one should be fooled — not in Russia, not at home, not anywhere in the world. Putin does not only target citizens of other countries, as we’ve seen what’s going on in Ukraine right now, he also inflicts terrible crimes on his own people,” he said.
The people of Russia and around the world are mourning the death of Alexei Navalny because he was brave, principled, and dedicated to building a Russia where the rule of law is equally applied. Navalny knew, said President Biden, “it was a cause worth fighting for and, obviously, even dying for.”
