Online Desk
"Navalny felt bad after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness. Medical staff arrived immediately and an ambulance team was called. Resuscitation measures were carried out which did not yield positive results. Paramedics confirmed the death of the convict. The causes of death are being established," the statement said.
The exiled team of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said it had no confirmation of his death and that a lawyer was headed to the Arctic prison colony where Russia's penitentiary service said he died earlier.
Navalny, 47, Russia's most prominent opposition leader, won a huge following with his criticism of corruption in Vladimir Putin's Russia.
His exposes, posted on his YouTube channel racked up millions of views and brought tens of thousands of Russians to the streets, despite Russia's harsh anti-protests laws.
Navalny was jailed in early 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he was recuperating from a near-fatal poisoning attack with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent.
In a string of cases he was sentenced to 19 years in prison on charges widely condemned by independent rights groups and in the West as retribution for his opposition to the Kremlin.
Late last year he was moved to a remove Arctic prison colony in Russia's Yamalo-Nenets region in northern Siberia.
The last post on Navalny's Telegram channel, which he managed through his lawyers and team in exile, was a tribute to his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, posted on Valentine's Day.