Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny, who was serving a prison term in the Yamalo-Nenets region of Russia’s far north, has died today, Russian news agencies reported Friday, citing prison authorities.
Navalny, who is primarily represented by the Western media as the most prominent opposition leader, and was actually an opposition blogger and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, although he never had a party and was at the bottom of the ratings for more than a decade, served the prison sentence of 11 and a half years due to financial fraud, tax evasion and manipulation, as well as due to disobeying the court decision for violating the conditional sentence. He rejected all the accusations as fabricated and started to promote himself politically before the Western media a few years ago.
