<\/p>\n
Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s most formidable opponent, collapsed and died on Friday after a walk at the \u201cPolar Wolf\u201d Arctic penal colony where he was serving a three-decade jail term, the Russian prison service said.<\/p>\n
The death of Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, robs the disparate Russian opposition of its most courageous leader as Putin prepares for an election which will keep the former KGB spy in power until at least 2030.<\/p>\n
There are now no opposition leaders of such prominence left in Russia. For some young urban Russians, Navalny also offered hope of an alternative future to Putin, who has served as Russia\u2019s paramount leader longer than anyone since Josef Stalin.<\/p>\n
Navalny rose to prominence more than a decade ago by documenting and speaking publicly about what he said was the vast corruption and opulence among the \u201ccrooks and thieves\u201d running Putin\u2019s Russia.<\/p>\n
The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District said in a statement that Navalny felt unwell after a walk at the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, about 1,900 kilometres northeast of Moscow.<\/p>\n
He lost consciousness almost immediately and died shortly afterwards despite the efforts of the prison\u2019s medical team and ambulance staff, the prison service said. Attempts to resuscitate him failed, it said.<\/p>\n
Navalny\u2019s wife, Yulia, told the Munich Security Conference she could not be sure her husband was dead because \u201cPutin and his government \u2026 lie incessantly\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if this is true, I want Putin, his entire entourage, Putin friends, his government to know that they will bear responsibility for what they did to our country, to my family, to my husband,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis regime and Vladimir Putin must bear personal responsibility for all the terrible things they have been doing to my country, to our country, Russia, in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kremlin said Putin had been informed. The 71-year-old former KGB spy was shown meeting workers at a factory in Chelyabinsk, in the Ural mountains.<\/p>\n
Western leaders paid tribute to Navalny\u2019s courage as a fighter for freedom. Some, without citing evidence, accused the Kremlin of murder and said Putin should be held accountable for the death.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis death in a Russian prison and the fixation and fear of one man only underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built. Russia is responsible for this,\u201d US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said shortly before meeting Navalny\u2019s wife in Munich.<\/p>\n
Navalny\u2019s movement was outlawed and most of his senior allies now live in exile in Europe. His team said it had no confirmation of his death but cast the prison service\u2019s statement as a murder confession.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no reason to believe state propaganda,\u201d Leonid Volkov, Navalny\u2019s chief of staff, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this is true, then it\u2019s not \u2018Navalny died\u2019, but \u2018Putin killed Navalny\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n