Alexei Navalny’s death at only 47 years old in an Arctic prison demonstrates a most somber reality: Navalny sacrificed his very life to show us that Russia has not changed its totalitarian mentality.
Navalny long forecast Russia could face seismic political turmoil because he said Putin built a brittle system of personal rule reliant on corruption, says Reuters.
For years, Navalny had survived poisoning attempts and jail time. Now, he fell unconscious and died after a walk, a vague report says.
Navalny and his group repeatedly exposed corruption in the Russian government, and attacked Vladimir Putin many times. Navalny used blogging and several ingenious means to expose lies about state finances.
Navalny accused the president of „sucking the blood out of Russia” through a „feudal state” concentrating power in the Kremlin. That patronage system, he claimed, was like tsarist Russia, reminds the BBC.
Navalny could have lived in exile, but chose to remain in Russia – fully aware of the risks involved.
According to the prison service, he had gone for a walk when he lost consciousness and died. They “tried” to resuscitate him but, of course, did not meet success.
The West, troubled by this news, reacted with shock, anger, seeing it as a chilling anecdote of Russia’s dramatic violation of individual freedom.
“Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death”, US President Joe Biden said at a White House news conference, while acknowledging that the United States still did not know details of what happened.
„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,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said shortly before meeting Navalny’s wife in Munich.
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron pointed out that “no-one can look at this regime now and not recognize it for the truly dreadful nature that it has”, while saying that there must be consequences for Russia.
“The events tell [us] that Putin is a murderer and this is not rhetoric,” Ukraine’s elenskiy said in a press conference in Paris.
Ursula von der Leyen and Josep Borrell, the EU president and vice-president, said in a joint statement: “He was slowly murdered by President Putin and his regime, who fear nothing more than dissent from their own people. We will spare no efforts to hold the Russian political leadership and authorities to account.”
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, went so far as to declare that the Russian regime is solely responsible for Navalny’s tragic death.
French foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné said he had „paid with his life for his resistance to a system of oppression”. France’s President Emmanuel Macron demanded details from Russia.
Navalny’s wife and mother of his two children, Yulia Navalnaya, spoke at the Munich Security Conference, which coincided with the news of her husband’s death.
This will put Putin – who just a few days ago announced that Russia is close to releasing a cancer vaccine – in an even more negative light than the past year has brought him…including in Mother Russia herself.
Moscow residents interviewed on the streets generally seemed saddened but not surprised. Meanwhile, Russian police have arrested mourners and journalists at vigils this evening.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny dies in Siberian prison
