“The cause of death is being investigated,” Russia’s prison authorities announced after Alexei Navalny died in Penal Colony No. 3 just above the Arctic Circle on Friday.
But whichever way you look at it, it’s already clear what killed him: Vladimir Putin’s enmity.
For years, Navalny and the Russian president have been locked in a brutal battle royal that was unlikely to end without the death of one them.
That somewhat macabre prognosis turned into a commonplace adage among many Russians — even among Navalny’s own supporters.
And now it has finally happened. Only a day after he was filmed at a court hearing — cracking jokes and seemingly in high spirits — it was announced the 47-year-old collapsed suddenly on a walk in prison, and died after an attempt by an ambulance crew to revive him.
You all realize there’s more than one opposition movement within Russia right? Navalny was just the most well known outside of Russia.