The exiled team of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said it had no confirmation of his death and that a lawyer was headed to the Arctic prison colony where Russia's penitentiary service said he died earlier."We have no confirmation on this yet," Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on social media, adding: "Alexei's lawyer is currently on his way to Kharp (the Arctic town where Navalny's prison is). As soon as we have some information, we will report on it."

"Brutally murdered"

Navalny's death provoked instant diplomatic reactions through the world. France says Navalny paid with his life for resisting Russia "oppression", while Norway FM Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide wrote on X, formerly Twitter that "the Russian government bears a heavy responsibility," adding that he was "deeply saddened by the news".

The harshest comment came from Latvia's president Edgars Rinkevics who accused the Kremlin to have murdered Putin's main opponent. "Whatever your thoughts about Alexei Navalny as the politician, he was just brutally murdered by the Kremlin. That's a fact and that is something one should know about the true nature of Russia's current regime.

Navalny "paid for his courage with his life", said German chancellor, Olaf Scholz. UK Prime minister Rishi Sunak called his death a "huge tragedy" for Russian people. Ukraine, through presidential aide Andriy Yermak, also commented saying that Vladimir Putin is "afraid of any competition". President Zelensky added that Putin should be held to account for Navalny's death.

Opposition leader

Navalny's exposes, posted on his YouTube channel racked up millions of views and brought tens of thousands of Russians to the streets, despite Russia's harsh anti-protests laws.

He was jailed in early 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he was recuperating from a near-fatal poisoning attack with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent.

In a string of cases he was sentenced to 19 years in prison on charges widely condemned by independent rights groups and in the West as retribution for his opposition to the Kremlin.

His return to Russia despite facing jail put him on a collision course with Putin, after Navalny blamed the poisoning attack in Siberia on the Kremlin.


"I'm not afraid and I call on you not to be afraid," he said in an appeal to supporters as he landed in Moscow, moments before being detained on charges linked to an old fraud conviction.

His 2021 arrest spurred some of the largest demonstrations Russia had seen in decades, and thousands were detained at rallies nationwide calling for his release.

In prison, Navalny's team said he had been harassed and repeatedly moved to a punitive solitary confinement cell.

He said guards had subjected him and other inmates to "torture by Putin", making them listen to the president's speeches.

From behind bars he was a staunch opponent of Moscow's full-scale military offensive against Ukraine.

The Kremlin moved to dismantle his organization, locking up his allies and sending dozens of others into exile.

Late last year he was moved to a remote Arctic prison colony in Russia's Yamalo-Nenets region in northern Siberia.

The last post on Navalny's Telegram channel, which he managed through his lawyers and team in exile, was a tribute to his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, posted on Valentine's Day.