BREAKING NEWS:
#Russian opposition leader #Navalny has died, #Russia 's prison service says
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68315943

will try and gauge the latest from opp figures, analysts etc on Alexey #Navalny 's death in a thread:

Mikhail #Khodorkovsky called on Russians to respond to Navalny's death by writing his name on the ballot for the presidential election

here a few months ago Alexey #Navalny joking from the 'Polar Wolf' penal colony:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-67941119

BBC's Sarah Rainsford on Alexey Navalny:

'When #Navalny survived the attempt to kill him with a nerve agent, #Novichok , he knew he would never be safe again in #Russia

And yet, after he recovered in Germany from the poisoning, he flew home.

As a #Russian politician, he could not contemplate the life of a political émigré, increasingly out of touch and irrelevant.

He said he had to be in Russia, whatever the risk.

But the risk was huge.'

' #Navalny never abandoned his hope and belief in what his team called "the beautiful #Russia of the future" – the end of #Putin ’s long and repressive rule and the prospect of political change in his country.

But since Putin has launched a war on Ukraine, Navalny’s own organisation has been banned as "extremist", his team arrested, and all well-known critics of Putin have fled the country - or been imprisoned.

Today, those prisoners’ families, too, must be terrified.'

and this is how Vladimir #Putin was talking at the Production and installation of metal structures exhibition in Stankomash Park shortly after learning about the death of Alexey #Navalny (he didn't mention him ofc):
https://t.me/news_kremlin/3165

Alexey #Navalny 's mother on FB:
“I don’t want to hear any condolences. We saw our son in the penal colony on the 12th of February, we had a meeting. He was alive, healthy, cheerful."

statement of the the Labytnangi town hospital on the death of Alexey #Navalny
“The ambulance crew’s travel time took less than 7 minutes. Doctors got through the penal colony's territory to check on the patient in two minutes. The doctors who arrived at the scene continued the resuscitation measures that had already been provided by the colony’s doctors. And they spent more than half an hour. However, the patient died,” the hospital noted.

#BBC #Russia editor Steve Rosenberg:

'Alexei Navalny was the Kremlin's most vocal critic. No doubt about that.

In fact, he was the only opposition leader in this country who had been capable of bringing large numbers of people, large numbers of protestors onto the streets across the country.

He got under the #Kremlin 's skin for sure and had accused the of trying to assassinate him back in 2020.'

Yulia Navalnaya, Alexey #Navalny 's wife at the Munich Security Conference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oTlZggZq4g
"I call on all of you - we should come together and we should fight this evil, this horrific regime in #Russia . Vladimir #Putin should personally be held responsible for all the atrocities"

More from Yulia Navalnaya 's statement:
“I don’t know whether to believe this terrible news we've only received from govt sources, or not. For many years we cannot trust Putin and the #Putin government. They always lie. But if this is true, I want Putin and everyone around him to know that they'll be held accountable for everything they did to our country, to my family. This day will come very soon.

“I want to call on the international community and all people to unite and defeat this evil.”

Founder and ed in chief of Insider.ru, a #Russian investigative website, Roman Dobrokhotov following #Navalny's death:

"Since all sorts of security officials read me on duty, I want to convey: it is better to stop him now and be known as real patriots, than to wait and endure until the system destroys you all one by one, as always happens in such regimes, no matter what side you are on."

Former German chancellor Angela #Merkel who was instrumental in medevacing #Navalny after his poisoning to Germany:

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron on his X account:
' #Navalny fought bravely against corruption.

#Putin ’s #Russia fabricated charges against him, poisoned him, sent him to an arctic penal colony & now he has tragically died.

Putin should be accountable for what has happened - no one should doubt the dreadful nature of his regime.'

V #BBC Frank Gardner:

Vitali #Klitschko, the Mayor of #Kyiv told the #BBC it was a message to anyone "who had a different opinion to Putin or the Russian government that they will be killed or put into prison".

Lt.Gen Ben Hodges, a former Commander of US Land Forces in Europe, said he was not surprised, given the previous attempt on #Navalny ’s life, but it was still appalling news.

Acc to Sotavision 'police have been 'dispersing'
people in #Moscow who came to the #Lubyanka in memory of Alexei #Navalny

https://t.me/sotavisionmedia/25604

President of #Moldova , Maia Sandu on the death of #Navalny (on X):
"The death of Alexei
@navalny
in a Russian prison is a stark reminder of the regime’s appalling oppression of dissent.

My heartfelt thoughts go out to his family, all democratically-minded Russians, and those bravely fighting for freedom and democracy within Russia and abroad."

Acc to the #Russian investigative outlet Agenstvo MP's of United #Russia were told not to comment on Alexey #Navalny 's death or to quote the Federal Penitentiary Service

One of the last posts from Alexey #Navalny 's x feed from Valentine's day to his wife Yulia:
"Kroshka (meaning: my little crumb, my baby), everything is like in the song with you: between us there are cities, the take-off lights of airfields, blue snowstorms and thousands of kilometres. But I feel that you are near every second, and I love you more and more"

meanwhile re-watching the award winning #Navalny documentary when he was asked what his message would if he actually gets killed...

Recommended watch:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0016txs/storyville-navalny

this is what he said in English:
"My message for the situation when i am killed is very simple. Not give up." the he carries on in Russian - next post:

#Navalny in the #BBC Storyville documentary:
(in the case of my death) "i have something very obvious to tell you: do not give up, you are not allowed to give up. if they decided to kill me it means we are incredibly strong. We need to utilise this power, to not give up, to remember we are a huge power that is being opressed by these bad dudes. we dont realise how strong we actually are. the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. so don't do nothing"

The UN Human Rights Office says it is "appalled" by the reported death of Alexei #Navalny, adding that it should be investigated by an independent body.

"If someone dies in the custody of the State," the UN statement adds, "the presumption is that the State is responsible."

It adds that this "responsibility can only be rebutted through an impartial, thorough and transparent investigation carried out by an independent body".

#Navalny 's team, his colleagues and associates on their live stream call the #Russian opposition politician's death in the Polar Wolf penal colony 'a political assassination'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJgryRacZmE

Around #Russia in many cities police have been cordoning off memorials, dispersing mourners & arresting people with signs - employees of the state are removing flowers laid for Alexey #Navalny. (They are doing this removal ritual regularly - on the bridge just outside the Kremlin walls, at the spot where Boris Nemtsov was assassinated too - for the last 9 years - so people started to call the place Nemtsov bridge)

V Tass:
Any suggestion that the #Kremlin is responsible for Alexey #Navalny 's death is "completely unacceptable", #Putin spokesman Dmitry #Peskov says.

Peskov added, the reaction from Western leaders to Navalny's death was "hysterical".

The speaker of #Russia 's lower house of the parliament (#Duma) Vyacheslav Volodin on #Navalny 's death on his telegram channel:

"All of them, their names are well-known, from the Nato secretary-general and the US leadership to Scholz, Sunak and Zelensky, are guilty of Navalny's death,"

"It is they who have made a huge number of failed decisions and cling to their positions who benefit from his death."

https://t.me/vv_volodin/759

v #BBC James Waterhouse:
“Obviously, he was killed by #Putin ,” was the assessment by #Ukraine president #Zelensky of what happened to Alexei #Navalny

What his comments weren’t accompanied by was a tribute to the jailed Kremlin critic.

Is that surprising?

Perhaps he remembers Navalny saying #Crimea "will remain part of #Russia" after its annexation in 2014, even though he didn’t support it.

Many Ukrainians you speak to certainly haven’t forgotten.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking in Munich, says the news of #Navalny 's death is "horrible but it shows that Putin fears nothing more than the dissent from his own people", and the world has "lost a freedom fighter. In his name we will stand up for democracy and for our values".

ed in chief of Russian opposition website holodmedia, Taisia Bekbulatova:
"Navalny 's death is a political murder, and we all know it.

The dictatorship took away almost everything from the Russians: it took away a prosperous future and the belief that every person has inalienable rights. it took away the opportunity to protest and resist. it took away our voice. The murder of #Navalny is an attempt by the dictator to take away the last hope from #Russian society."