Death strikes Russian dissidents in myriad ways; radioactive poisoning, nerve agent attack, a fatal plunge from an open window or the old-fashioned way of getting shot at close range. The recent death of Alexei Navalny, a prominent opposition figure and a staunch critic of Vladimir Putin, had all the markings of yet another state-sponsored assassination. The 47-year-old dissident leader, who was often compared to Nelson Mandela for his fearless campaign against authoritarian rule, died in a penal colony in the remote Arctic Circle while serving a 19-year jail term on charges of extremism. His heartbroken widow Yulia Navalnaya has vowed to continue the fight to achieve the goal of a free and democratic Russia.
Navalny began his career as an opposition politician more than a decade ago, harnessing the power of social media to reach out to the restless middle-class Russians. In August 2020, Navalny fell ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow. He survived and was flown to Berlin, where he was treated for the effects of Novichok, a neurotoxin developed in the Soviet Union, and a weapon of choice for Russian secret agents. Despite the attempt at his life, he returned to Russia in 2021, where he was arrested on arrival for violating his parole. He had been in prison ever since. Amid the global outpouring of grief, anger and demands for justice, Navalny’s death raises questions over the fractured Russian opposition and whether his widow could emerge as a rallying point for the anti-Putin forces ahead of the presidential election scheduled next month.