Navalny’s last post shows brutal treatment of Russian politician before death

Russia's most influential opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, has died in prison, with onlookers pointing to his final post on X/Twitter as evidence of his brutal treatment.

Navalny was being held in one of Russia's harshest prisons inside the Arctic Circle on a 19-year jail term, which was widely viewed as politically motivated.

He was one of president Vladimir Putin's most vocal critics, and had already previously poisoned with novichok, a Soviet-made nerve agent, on a trip to Siberia in 2020.

He was moved to the Arctic penal colony in the Yamalo-Nenets district in December.

In a video from the prison in January, he had appeared gaunt with his head shaved.

The prison service said he had "felt unwell" after a walk on Friday.

The service said Navalny had "almost immediately lost consciousness", adding that an emergency medical team had immediately been called and unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate him.

"The emergency doctors declared the prisoner dead. Cause of death is being established."

Navalny's allies have already pointed to the politician's last tweet.

Translated, it read: "The Yamal colony decided to break the Vladimir record of fawning and pleasing the Moscow authorities.

"They just gave me 15 days in a punishment cell. That is, this is the 4th punishment cell in less than 2 months that I have been with them. They gesture."

Navalny's lawyer Leonid Solovyov told Russian media he would not be commenting yet.

However, his close aide Leonid Volkov wrote on X/Twitter: "Russian authorities publish a confession that they killed Alexei Navalny in prison. We do not have any way to confirm it or to prove this isn't true."

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that Navalny's death had been "reported to the president".

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