Alexei Navalny, the Russian lawyer and anti-corruption activist who became the most potent voice in opposition to President Vladimir Putin, a calling that landed him in a maximum-security prison camp, has died, according to the prison service. He was 47.
Navalny fell sick during a walk and medical staff were unable to revive him, the prison authorities said Friday, according to Interfax. An investigation is underway, according to the statement. No cause of death was given.
In December, friends and lawyers for Navalny raised the alarm on social media that they had lost contact with him. He later emerged in a remote Arctic prison camp ending nearly three weeks in which his whereabouts were unknown after he was moved from a prison outside Moscow.