According to state media: Opposition politician Navalny dies in custody

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has died while in custody, Russian media reported, citing prison authorities. According to Russian media, the suspected cause of death was a blood clot. Russian media reported that the 47-year-old had been ill since his release and efforts to revive him had failed.

After running for president in 2018, Navalny was arrested for the first time, but was later released. When he returned to Russia on January 17, 2021, he was arrested at the Moscow airport. Since then, he has continued to be detained and has repeatedly complained about the brutal methods of prison staff and the grossly inadequate medical facilities.

International human rights organizations have also continued to criticize Navalny's prison conditions. At the end of February 2021, the opposition politician was arrested in Bokro Prison Camp No. 2, where he went on hunger strike in late March 2021 to protest his prison conditions. Since then, Navalny has been transferred several times to worse prisons, while his physical condition has steadily deteriorated.

In mid-April 2023, reports emerged that Navalny had lost eight kilograms in two weeks in solitary confinement, suffered from stomach pains and called an emergency doctor. Navalny's lawyer requested toxicology and radiology tests for his client.

In September 2023, Navalny said he would be held for a year in an EPKT cell, the harshest form of solitary confinement in Russia “due to incorrigibility.”

On December 11, 2023, Navalny was transferred from the IK-6 prison camp to an unknown location. It was only on December 25 that his spokesman Navalny visited Penal Colony in Western Siberia No. 3, where the opposition politician had only a few square meters of yard space in addition to his isolation room.