Navalny’s Death Would Deprive Russia of Leading Opposition Voice

The death of Alexei Navalny, reported by the authorities in Russia on Friday, would leave the country without its most prominent opposition voice at a time when President Vladimir Putin has amassed near-total power, invaded neighboring Ukraine and drawn the sharpest divisions with U.S.-led Western allies since the end of the Cold War.

Navalny had been serving multiple prison sentences — on what supporters said were fabricated charges — that would likely have kept him locked up until at least 2031. The news of his death shocked world leaders, with Vice President Kamala Harris saying that while the United States was still trying to confirm the reports, it believed “Russia is responsible.”

Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement that Navalny, 47, had lost consciousness and died after taking a walk Friday in the Arctic prison where he was moved late last year. “All necessary resuscitation measures were taken, which did not lead to positive results,” the statement said.

Western officials and many of Navalny’s supporters expressed skepticism about the Russian authorities’ statements. Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, said in a live broadcast that his team could not immediately confirm his death but believed in all likelihood he was dead.

Here is what else to know:

— Putin did not immediately comment on the reports. His spokesperson said that Navalny’s death had been reported to Putin, according to the Tass state news service. Shortly after the announcement, Russian television showed Putin speaking with students and industrial workers in the Ural Mountains, where he was asked about topics like robotics, government subsidies and engineering schools. He did not mention Navalny.

— Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s wife, made a dramatic appearance at the Munich Security Conference, telling an audience of world leaders that while no one could trust Putin’s government, if her husband was dead, “they will be brought to justice.”

— Last August, a court handed Navalny a new, 19-year sentence on charges of supporting “extremism,” and in December he disappeared for three weeks as Russian authorities transferred him to a remote penal colony in the Arctic. He was last seen publicly Thursday, when he appeared via video link in a court hearing.

— Navalny, a former real estate lawyer, rose to prominence as an anti-corruption activist. In 2020, while traveling in Siberia, Navalny fell severely ill. After he was treated in Germany, several countries determined that he had been poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent that was used at least once before in an attack on a Kremlin enemy.

— Navalny’s death would deal a major blow to Russia’s marginalized opposition movement, already weakened by repression, internal rivalries and wartime nationalism. His supporters expressed disbelief: “Murder,” many wrote on social media, but the sentiment running beneath the comments was a loss of hope.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.