Alexei Navalny, a thorn within the facet of the Kremlin and Russia’s most outstanding political dissident, died in jail after being poisoned by the Kremlin, the UK and its European allies have mentioned.
Navalny, a fierce critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, died whereas serving a 19-year jail time period in a penal colony round 40 miles of the Arctic Circle in costs extensively considered politically motivated.
He died in February 2024 after going for a stroll on the jail and dropping consciousness.
The political agitator has been behind bars since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
Before his arrest, he campaigned towards official corruption, organized main anti-Kremlin protests and ran for public workplace.
Now, Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands have mentioned that he died after being poisoned with a deadly dart frog toxin – a improvement which has prompted his widow to name for Vladimir Putin to be held “accountable”.
Here’s a have a look at Navalny’s life, political activism and the fees he has confronted by way of the years:
1976
4 June 4 — Navalny is born in a western a part of the Moscow area.
1997
Graduates from Russia’s RUDN college, the place he majored in legislation; earns a level in economics in 2001 whereas working as a lawyer.
2004
Forms a motion towards rampant overdevelopment in Moscow, in response to his marketing campaign web site.
2008
Gains notoriety for alleging corruption in state-run companies, similar to fuel large Gazprom and oil behemoth Rosneft, by way of his blogs and different posts.
2010
Founds RosPil, an anti-corruption mission run by a group of legal professionals that analyzes spending of state companies and corporations, exposing violations and contesting them in courtroom.
2011
December- Participates in mass protests sparked by experiences of widespread rigging of Russia’s parliamentary election, and is arrested and jailed for 15 days for “defying a government official.”
2012
March – Following Mr Putin’s reelection and inauguration, mass protests escape in Moscow and elsewhere. Navalny accuses key figures, together with then-Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Chechnya’s strongman chief, Ramzan Kadyrov, of corruption.
July – Russia’s Investigative Committee costs Navalny with embezzlement involving Kirovles, a state-owned timber firm within the Kirov area, whereas appearing as an adviser to the native governor. Navalny rejects the allegations as politically motivated.
December — The Investigative Committee launches one other probe into alleged embezzlement at a Navalny-linked Russian subsidiary of Yves Rocher, a French cosmetics firm. Navalny once more says the allegations are politically motivated.
2013
Navalny runs for mayor in Moscow — a transfer the authorities not solely permit however encourage in an try to put a veneer of democracy on the race that’s designed to spice up the profile of the incumbent, Sergei Sobyanin.
July – A courtroom in Kirov convicts Navalny of embezzlement within the Kirovles case, sentencing him to 5 years in jail. The prosecution petitions to launch Navalny from custody pending his enchantment, and he resumes his marketing campaign.
September — Official outcomes present Navalny finishes second within the mayor’s race behind Sobyanin, with 27% of the vote, after a profitable electoral and fundraising marketing campaign gathering an unprecedented 97.3 million rubles ($2.9 million) from particular person supporters.
October — A courtroom palms Navalny a suspended sentence within the Kirovles case. February 2014 — Navalny is positioned beneath home arrest in reference to the Yves Rocher case and banned from utilizing the web. His weblog continues to be up to date frequently, presumably by his group, detailing alleged corruption by numerous Russian officers.
December — Navalny and his brother, Oleg, are discovered responsible of fraud within the Yves Rocher case. Navalny receives a 3 ½-year suspended sentence, whereas his brother is handed a jail time period. Both enchantment to the European Court of Human Rights.
2015
December — Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption releases its first long-form video — a YouTube documentary known as “Chaika,” which suggests “seagull” in Russian however can be the final title of then-Prosecutor General Yury Chaika.
The 44-minute video accuses him of corruption and alleged ties to a infamous felony group and has piled up 26 million views on YouTube. Chaika and different Russian officers deny the accusations.
2016
February — The European Court of Human Rights guidelines that Russia violated Navalny’s proper to a good trial within the Kirovles case, ordering the federal government to pay his authorized prices and damages.
November — Russia’s Supreme Court overturns Navalny’s sentence and sends the case again to the unique courtroom within the metropolis of Kirov for overview.
December — Navalny declares he’ll run in Russia’s 2018 presidential election.
2017
February — The Kirov courtroom retries Navalny and upholds his five-year suspended sentence from 2013.
March — Navalny releases a YouTube documentary accusing then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of corruption, getting over 7 million views in its first week. A sequence of anti-graft protests throughout Russia draw tens of hundreds and there are mass arrests. Navalny excursions the nation to open marketing campaign workplaces, holds huge rallies and is jailed repeatedly for unauthorized demonstrations.
27 April — Unidentified assailants throw a inexperienced disinfectant in his face, damaging his proper eye. He blames the assault on the Kremlin.
October — The European Court of Human Rights finds Navalny’s fraud conviction within the Yves Rocher case to be “arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable.”
December — Russia’s Central Electoral Commission bars him from working for president over his conviction within the Kirovles case, a transfer condemned by the EU as casting “serious doubt” on the election.
2019
July — Members of Navalny’s group, together with different opposition activists, are barred from working for Moscow metropolis council, sparking protests which can be violently dispersed, with hundreds arrested. Navalny’s group responds by selling the “Smart Voting” technique, encouraging the election of any candidate besides these from the Kremlin’s United Russia social gathering. The technique works, with the social gathering dropping its majority.
2020
Navalny seeks to deploy the Smart Voting technique throughout regional elections in September and excursions Siberia as a part of the trouble.
20 August — On a flight from town of Tomsk, the place he was working with native activists, Navalny falls in poor health and the airplane makes an emergency touchdown in close by Omsk. Hospitalized in a coma, Navalny’s group suspects he was poisoned.
22 August — A comatose Navalny is flown to a hospital in Berlin.
24 August — German authorities verify Navalny was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent. After he recovers, he blames the Kremlin, an accusation denied by Russian officers.
2021
17 January — After 5 months in Germany, Navalny is arrested upon his return to Russia, with authorities alleging his recuperation overseas violated the phrases of his suspended sentence within the Yves Rocher case. His arrest triggers a number of the largest protests in Russia in years. Thousands are arrested.
2 February — A Moscow courtroom orders Navalny to serve 2 ½ years in jail for his parole violation. While in jail, Navalny levels a three-week starvation strike to protest an absence of medical therapy and sleep deprivation.
June — A Moscow courtroom outlaws Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and about 40 regional workplaces as extremist, shutting down his political community. Close associates and group members face prosecution and go away Russia beneath strain. Navalny maintains contact together with his legal professionals and group from jail, they usually replace his social media accounts.
2022
24 February — Russia invades Ukraine. Navalny condemns the conflict in social media posts from jail and through his courtroom appearances.
22 March — Navalny is sentenced to an extra nine-year time period for embezzlement and contempt of courtroom in a case his supporters rejected as fabricated. He is transferred to a maximum-security jail in Russia’s western Vladimir area.
July — Navalny’s group declares the relaunch of the Anti-Corruption Foundation as a global group with an advisory board together with Francis Fukuyama, Anne Applebaum, and the European Parliament member and former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.
Navalny continues to file lawsuits in jail and tries to type a labor union within the facility. In response, penitentiary officers begin frequently inserting him in solitary confinement over purported disciplinary violations similar to failing to correctly button his garment or to clean his face at a specified time.
2023
Over 400 Russian docs signal an open letter to Mr Putin, urging an finish to what it calls abuse of Navalny, following experiences that he was denied fundamental treatment after getting the flu. His group expresses concern about his well being, saying in April he had acute abdomen ache and suspected he was being slowly poisoned.
12 March — “Navalny,” a movie in regards to the try on the opposition chief’s life, wins the Oscar for greatest documentary characteristic.
26 April — Appearing on a videolink from jail throughout a listening to, Navalny says he was going through new extremism and terrorism costs that would preserve him behind bars for the remainder of his life. He provides sardonically that the fees suggest that “I’m conducting terror attacks while sitting in prison.”
19 June — The trial begins in a make-shift courtroom within the Penal Colony No. 6 the place Navalny is being held. Soon after it begins, the decide closes the trial for the general public and the media regardless of Navalny’s demand to maintain it open.
20 July — The prosecution in its closing arguments asks the courtroom to condemn Navalny to twenty years in jail, the politician’s group experiences. Navalny says in a subsequent assertion that he expects his sentence to be “huge … a Stalinist term,” referring to the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
4 August – Navalny is sentenced to 19 years in jail for “extremism”. He was accused by the Russian authorities of making an extremist neighborhood, financing extremist actions and plenty of different crimes. According to a message on Telegram, he mentioned: “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 verdict is not for me. It is for you.”
December – Navalny was transferred this month to a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle. His lawyer mentioned Russian authorities wished to isolate Navalny forward of Russia’s March presidential election.
2024
9 January – Navalny sarcastically heaped reward on the polar circumstances on the jail north of the Arctic Circle the place he was moved to shortly earlier than Christmas. In a publish on the Telegram messaging app Navalny mentioned he had been put in a punishment cell for his perspective as quickly as he left quarantine on the so-called “Polar Wolf” jail colony. He mentioned that strolling for half an hour in these temperatures you “manage to grow a new nose, new ears and new fingers.”
11 January – Navalny appeared earlier than a Supreme Court decide by video hyperlink on Thursday to argue for the precise to longer meal breaks and entry to extra books in jail. Wearing a black jail uniform and standing behind bars in a small, naked room, Navalny, 47, appeared gaunt however spoke animatedly, at size and with out notes.
17 January – From his penal camp Navalny, mentioned that Putin’s state would someday crumble together with the post-Soviet elite which he forged as venal, power-hungry and duplicitous. “Lies, lies and nothing but lies. It will collapse and crumble. Putin’s state is not viable. One day we will look at his place and he won’t be there.”
23 January – Navalny was positioned in solitary confinement for 10 days for “incorrectly introducing himself” to a guard, his spokesperson mentioned.
16 February – Russia’s jail company has mentioned that imprisoned opposition chief Navalny has died. He was 47.
2026
14 February – The UK and its allies have pinned the blame for Navalny’s demise on the Russian state following evaluation of poison developed from a dart frog toxin present in his physique.
Additional reporting by companies
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/alexei-navalny-death-poison-prison-putin-russia-b2920650.html