Russian prison authorities reported the sudden death, and his opponent’s family, fellow believers and Western foreign ministries accused Putin of ordering his murder.
Navalny, a lawyer by profession, made a name for himself as a blogger by condemning illicit enrichment in public administration with videos like this “Putin’s Palace” which had over 100 million views on YouTube.
Navalny, who demonstrated his electoral appeal by finishing second in the Moscow mayoral elections, was was poisoned in 2020 by the chemical Novichok in the hands of the Federal Security Service (FSB) by order of Putinaccording to the opponent.
Despite the threat of reprisals, he returned to Russia the following year, after which he was immediately arrested and sentenced to various punishments, including almost 30 years in prison.
His latest task was to launch a campaign against the re-election of Putin, who never uses his first and last name when addressing the opposition leader in public appearances.
Prigogine
Businessman Evgeny Prigozhin died August 2023 private plane crash in which he traveled with his chief collaborators.
Prigozhin, a native of the former Tsarist capital like Putin, where he owned a popular restaurant, made his fortune by signing contracts with the Defense Ministry to supply delicious food.
He would even be known as “Putin’s Chef”as he also carried out restoration activities in the presidential administration and created the famous St. Petersburg troll factory, which the United States accused of interfering in the 2016 presidential election.
At the head of the group Wagner’s Mercenaries He collaborated with the governments of several African countries and participated in the Russian military campaign in Ukraine, during which he even captured the city of Bakhmut, hiring tens of thousands of convicts.
Then friction began with the Ministry of Defense, which he accused of abandoning Wagner units to their fate without providing them with the necessary ammunition.
His death occurred exactly two months after Prigogine starred in the film armed uprising in the south of the countryduring which he took the city of Rostov-on-Don and moved towards Moscow.
Although he initially accused him of treason, Putin appeared to forgive him as he received him at the Kremlin a few days later, after which Prigozhin reportedly agreed to focus on Wagner’s activities in Africa.
With many pointing to him as the prime suspect in his death, Putin said Prigozhin’s plane was not shot downit turned out that they were found inside grenade remains on the bodies of the occupiers and suggested that they themselves caused the tragedy, accusing them of using drugs and alcohol.
Nemtsov
Leader of the Opposition Boris Nemtsov He was shot dead in February 2015 while he was walking with his girlfriend along a bridge in front of the Kremlin walls.
Soon after Putin arrived in Moscow after working in the St. Petersburg mayor’s office, Nemtsov became the dolphin of Russia’s first democratically elected president, Boris Yeltsin, who appointed him Deputy Prime Minister.
Against all odds, Yeltsin chose Putin as his replacement when he left the presidency in 1999, sending Nemtsov into the opposition.
After working for several years as a liberal deputy in the Duma, Nemtsov began to condemn lack of democratic freedoms and corruption in the Kremlinand called for unsanctioned protests.
Repeatedly arrested for disobedience to authority and sentenced to administrative detention, Nemtsov exposed the largest case of corruption in Russian history during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, whose budget was $50 billion, five times more than expected.
He also accused the Kremlin of sending regular troops to eastern Ukraine to support a pro-Russian uprising against Kyiv, which Putin publicly denied.
His family blames the Kremlin not for pulling the trigger, but for creating the conditions that led to shooting of the enemy by a group of Chechens.
(according to information from EFE)