ALEXEI NAVALNY, among Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, has died in prison aged 47. 

The Federal Prison Service said in a statement that Mr Navalny, a dissident politician and anti-corruption campaigner, felt unwell after a walk today and lost consciousness. An ambulance arrived to try to rehabilitate him, but he died.

Mr Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on social media that the politician’s team had no official confirmation of his death so far and his lawyer was travelling to Kharp, a “special regime” penal colony located within the Arctic Circle where he was held.

Mr Navalny, who was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism, was moved in December from his former prison in the Vladimir region of central Russia to Kharp – the country’s highest security prison.

The remote region is notorious for long and severe winters. 

Mr Navalny had been behind bars since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning, which he had blamed on the Kremlin. 

Before his arrest, he campaigned against official corruption, organised major anti-government protests and ran for public office.

He subsequently received three prison sentences, all of which he rejected as politically motivated.