Russian Dissident Alexei Navalny Dies in Prison

"Honey, everything with you is like a song: between us there are cities, airport lights, blue snowstorms and thousands of kilometers. But I feel that you are close... every second and I love you more and more." Alexei Navalny, who died today from a thrombosis, had entrusted X with his last love dedication to his wife. A declaration of a few lines and an image that portrays him together with Yulia Borisovna Navalnaja, whom he married in 2000 and who is the mother of his two children. Navalny, who was the deceased dissident: the poisoning, the prisons and the challenge to Putin on 'gay and the western world'. The Russian dissident, the main opponent of Vladimir Putin, was in the Kharp prison, in the Arctic region of Yamalo Nenets, where he had recently been transferred to serve a 19-year sentence. "They just gave me 15 days in a punishment cell, the fourth in less than two months" Navalny let us know, always through X, on February 14. But for the prison services the man would have "felt bad after the walk, losing consciousness almost immediately. The medical staff arrived immediately and the ambulance was called. Resuscitation measures were carried out that did not give positive results. The paramedics confirmed the convict's death." Kira Yarmysh, Navalny's spokesperson, said she still has no direct news of the death: "The federal prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets district - Yarmysh wrote on X - is spreading news about the death of Alexei Navalny in the IK-3 detention colony. We still don't have confirmation. Alexei's lawyer is flying to Kharp (a city near the detention center, ed). As soon as we have some information, we will communicate it". "My husband is in prison just because he wanted to defend democracy. I dream of the day when you will be free and our country will be free. Stay strong, I love you", said the lawyer and activist's wife, Yulia Navalnaya, who in March 2023 had picked up the award for best documentary at the Oscars for Navalny, dedicated to her husband and directed by Daniel Roher. Navalnaya has accompanied, supported, also suffered all the consequences of her husband's active commitment. She is a graduate in International Relations, a former bank official. The couple had two children. Her personality emerged especially after Navalny's poisoning during an electoral tour in Siberia with the nerve gas Novichok. Only an emergency landing saved the dissident's life. "Her role has certainly changed. She has charisma and charm, she is a creative and brave person and can easily replace her husband if necessary", explained Russian politics expert Konstantin Kalachev to Afp at the time. Some media described her as a destabilizing agent of Russia on behalf of the West. She has been arrested several times. Navalny had disappeared last December, before it was made known his transfer to a new penal colony in northern Russia. His spokesperson Kira Yarmysh had let it be known that her client was in Charp, about 1,900 kilometers northeast of Moscow, in the autonomous region of Yamalo-Nenets. Putin's opponent had been transferred to the IK-3 penal colony, built in the 1960s, which housed a gulag, or a forced labor camp for political opponents of the Soviet Union. An isolated colony, at an extreme point near the Arctic Ocean, used for detainees considered dangerous. "It is practically impossible to reach that penal colony: it is practically impossible even to get letters there, it is the highest possible level of isolation from the world", said Navalny's collaborator, Leonid Volkov. Navalny before disappearing had appeared on several occasions in video conference at the hearings of the trials in which he is involved. Presidential elections will be held in Russia in March, for which Putin will run for the fifth term.