7 times Alexei Navalny angered Vladimir Putin

Alexei Navalny, a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship in Russia, has died in prison aged just 47, the federal prison service has claimed.

It said the activist “felt unwell” after a walk on Friday and “almost immediately lost consciousness”, and while medical staff were called, they were unable to resuscitate him.

The Kremlin told the Russian state news agency TASS that it had “no information on the cause of death of Navalny”, which is currently being established, and that Putin had been made aware.

Meanwhile, Navalny’s lawyer Leonid Solovyov told Russian media he would not be commenting yet, and close aide Leonid Volkov wrote on Twitter: “Russian authorities push 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.”

So what exactly did Navalny do to anger Putin, to the extent he ended up in prison, where he – if the reports are to be believed – spent the last of his days?

2011: “The party of crooks and thieves”

Just before Putin became president a year later, Navalny attended a rally and told the crowd of some 7,000 people: “This is our country, and we have to eradicate the crooks who suck our blood and eat our liver.

“Down with United Russia! Down with the party of crooks and thieves!”

In that same year, he was arrested for 15 days for “defying a government official”.

2013: The blogging days

Just over a decade ago, Navalny was garnering attention as a blogger focussing on Russian corruption and the country’s government. He had made himself clear that he wanted to be president one day, too, and would plan to buy shares in major companies – including state-owned ones – to ask questions of their finances.

In April that year, he faced trial on fraud charges – namely, the allegation that he embezzled £330,000 while advising a local timber company in 2009 – which carried a sentence of up to 10 years if he was found guilty.

Which he was.

He had dismissed the case against him as “political revenge”, and said: “The main goal of this trial is to remove me from the electoral process. The case is absolutely politically motivated, and fabricated. My innocence is visible to everyone regardless of the verdict this court returns.”

Before the judge retired to consider his verdict, Navalny denounced the regime of the Russian government as one of “scumbags”.

Despite the charges levelled against him, he ran to become mayor of Moscow later that year, saying: “We are different from the people who sit in offices at 12 Tverskaya [the mayoralty] and the Kremlin. Their only goal is to get money to build a house in Spain, send their children to school in Switzerland, and at the same time pass laws to supposedly increase patriotism.”

The fraud conviction, initially resolved with a five-year prison sentence, was changed to a suspended sentence in October 2013, before Navalny and his brother were convicted of fraud in another case. His brother was imprisoned while Navalny had another suspended sentence.

2015-17: The planned presidential run and YouTube documentaries

In 2015, Navalny released a film alleging the country’s prosecutor general, Yuri Chaika, had links to a criminal gang in the country. Chaika and other officials deny the allegations.

In December 2016, he announced his intention to run for president in 2018. He would be barred from doing so a year later, due to his embezzlement conviction.

Also in 2017, “He Is Not Dimon To You” was released, a film firing off allegations against then-prime minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev.

The Free Russia Foundation reports on a number of investigations published over several years which took aim at key Russian figures, including Putin himself.

He was attacked twice with zelyonka or “brilliant green” antiseptic by unknown assailants in 2017, near his Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK) offices, and posted on his website to say that he had been told he had a “chemical burn on the right eye”.

2019: The ‘Smart Voting’ strategy which lost Putin’s United Russia party its majority

Effectively tactical voting, the ‘Smart Voting’ strategy encouraged people to vote for anyone but the candidates for Putin’s United Russia, and it works. He would tour Siberia the next year to further promote the strategy, but things took a turn.

2020: The novichok poisoning

In August of 2020, Navalny collapsed on-board a flight from Siberia to Moscow, with his aide suggesting he may have been poisoned after drinking tea at the airport (fellow Russian critic Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium in his tea which would go on to kill him in 2006).

He was comatose when he was taken to a hospital in Omsk, where the plane made an emergency landing.

Germany concluded it had “unequivocal evidence” that Navalny was poisoned with novichok, the same chemical nerve agent with which Sergei Skripal was poisoned in Salisbury in 2018.

Navalny later told German news outlet Der Spiegel: “I assert that Putin is behind this act, I don’t see any other explanation.”

He was arrested upon his return to Russia in 2021 for violating parole.

2021-23: The prison sentences mount up

The parole violation saw him sentenced to two and a half years in prison. A month after he condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he was sentenced to another nine years for embezzlement and contempt of court.

In August 2023, he was sentenced to another 19 years in prison for “extremism”, and wrote on Telegram: “I am serving a life sentence. Where life is measured by the duration of my life or the life of this regime.

“The number from the verdict is not for me. It is for you.”

In the last month of 2023, it was revealed that he had been moved to a brutal penal colony near the Arctic Circle known as ‘Polar Wolf’.

It was in prison that Navalny died this week.

2022: Navalny

Considering the possibility he may die as a result of his continued criticism of Putin, Navalny shared a message in an Oscar-winning documentary to people if that scenario were to happen.

He said: “Listen, I’ve got something very obvious to tell you. You’re not allowed to give up.

“If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong. We need to utilize this power to not give up, to remember we are a huge power that is being oppressed by these bad dudes.

“We don’t realise how strong we actually are. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good people to do nothing.

“So don’t be inactive.”

2024: The political reaction to his death

Following the reports, the international political community paid tribute:

Navalny’s wife, Yulia, slammed the “horrific regime” in Russia and said Putin and his friends would not go unpunished.

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