A spokesperson for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny confirmed on Saturday that he died at a penal colony on Friday.
His spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said that Navalny was “murdered” at a remote penal colony near the Arctic Circle, according to The Associated Press. Navalny’s mother was given a note that said her son died just after 2 p.m. local time on Friday, Yarmysh said.
“An employee of the colony said that the body of Navalny is now in Salekhard. It was picked up by investigators from the IC (Investigative Committee). Now they are conducting ‘investigations’ with him,” Yarmysh said, according to CNN.
Navalny’s mother and a lawyer went to the city to visit the morgue but were told it was closed. They inquired for some more information and were told that his body was not there. Yarmysh said that Navalny’s lawyers went to the Salekhard’s Investigative Committee, the AP reported. There, they were told that his cause of death had not yet been determined. They are expecting to release results sometime next week. Where Navalny’s body is remains unclear.
“We demand that Alexey Navalny’s body be handed over to his family immediately,” she continued.
Russia’s prison service announced Friday that Navalny died, according to the AP.
Navalny’s death comes less than a month before an election in Russia. That election would give Putin another six years in power, the AP reported.
“Reports of his death, if they’re true — and I have no reason to believe that they’re not — Russian officials are going to tell their own story,” President Joe Biden said Friday. “Make no mistake — Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.”
He added, “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.”
Navalny, 47, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most visible critics, was serving a 19-year sentence in an Arctic penal colony, considered one of the world’s toughest jails.
Navalny was imprisoned in 2021 after he returned to Russia from Germany. In Germany, he was given treatment after he was poisoned by Novichok, according to CNN. Novichok is a Soviet-era nerve agent. When Navalny made it to Russia, he was arrested and then taken to a penal colony located just north of the Arctic Circle.
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