Aleksei A. Navalny portrayed himself as invincible, consistently using his hallmark humor to suggest that President Vladimir V. Putin couldn’t break him, no matter how dire his conditions became in prison.
But behind the brave face, the reality was plain to see.
Since his incarceration in early 2021, Mr. Navalny, Russia’s most formidable opposition figure, and his staff regularly suggested his conditions were so grim that he was being put to death in slow motion.
The cause of Mr. Navalny’s death in prison at 47 has not been established — in fact his family has not yet even been allowed to see his body — but Russia’s harshest penal colonies are known for hazardous conditions, and Mr. Navalny was singled out for particularly brutal treatment.
“As Navalny’s doctor told me: the body cannot withstand this.”
Persons:
Aleksei A, Navalny, Vladimir V, Putin, Navalny’s, “ Aleksei Navalny, Dmitri A, Muratov, ”
Locations:
Russian