Alexei Navalny, the Russian nationalist and long-time thorn-in-the-buttcheek to Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in a Russian penal colony north of the Arctic Circle Thursday. My colleague Ben Kew has the news, but Navalny’s death, at this time, seems to be a message to internal and external audiences.
BACKGROUND: Alexei Navalny, Martyr for Russian Democracy, Dies in Prison Aged 47
At the time of his death, Navalny had been in prison since 2021, but the odds of him ever getting out of prison approached zero. The Putin regime extended Navalny’s two-and-a-half-year sentence that he received in 2021 several times, with a final conviction handed down in August 2023, getting him a further 19 years in a “special regime” labor camp. His lawyers were arrested and charged with participating in “extremist activity” two months after Navalny’s sentencing.
The exact circumstances of…
