Alexei Navalny has develop into the most recent in a string of deaths of critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Over his greater than twenty years on the high of the Kremlin, various Mr Putin’s opponents have suffered unlucky fates – together with being jailed, shot lifeless on the street, or poisoned with tea spiked with polonium-210.
Follow live – Putin critic dies after ‘feeling unwell’ and ‘losing consciousness’
Who’re the individuals who have dared converse out towards Mr Putin or defy the Kremlin, and the place are they now?
Alexei Navalny
Born to manufacturing unit house owners in a village west of Moscow, Alexei Navalny grew to develop into maybe the highest-profile critic of Mr Putin’s time in energy.
His political activism, together with in depth investigations into high-level corruption and working to be mayor of Moscow, gained him fame – and plenty of believed he posed a risk to Mr Putin.
It was in August 2020 when his battle towards the Russian president hit the worldwide headlines.
Mr Navalny fell gravely ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow and he was flown, nonetheless in a coma, to Berlin.
His workforce accused the Kremlin of poisoning him, a cost the Kremlin denied.
German medics confirmed that he had been poisoned with novichok – a Soviet-era nerve agent – and his restoration took months.
Regardless of the hazard, Mr Navalny elected to return to Russia the place he was later arrested, convicted on prices he says are politically motivated, and sent to a Russian penal colony.
Russian officers mentioned Mr Navalny died in prison.
Watch particular programme on Navalny’s demise at 9pm on Sky Information
Boris Nadezhdin
Opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin declared that he would run towards Mr Putin within the 2024 presidential election.
Regardless of doubts that the 60-year-old might current a severe problem to the incumbent chief, Mr Nadezhdin mentioned he had gathered greater than 200,000 signatures from throughout Russia.
He had shocked some analysts together with his robust criticism of what the Kremlin calls its “particular army operation” in Ukraine, calling the battle a “deadly mistake” and vowing to attempt to finish it by means of negotiations.
On 8 February, he mentioned he had been barred from running in the election and the Central Election Fee mentioned it had discovered flaws in signatures his marketing campaign had collected.
He vowed to enchantment to Russia’s supreme court docket, including: “Participating within the presidential election in 2024 is a very powerful political determination of my life. I’m not giving up on my intentions.”
Talking to Sky Information final 12 months, Mr Nadezhdin mentioned he was not afraid of talking out “as a result of I’ve a protracted life” and he had confronted demise a number of instances.
Yevgeny Prigozhin
The ascension of Yevgeny Prigozhin from a sizzling canine vendor to the boss of a non-public military which marched on Moscow was outstanding.
His Wagner Group mercenaries had been infamous each for his or her brutality in Ukraine but in addition their affect in Africa.
Prigozhin turned more and more daring in his criticism of the Russian army and its high command.
When his forces started a march on Moscow from the southern metropolis of Rostov it seemed to be the largest problem to Mr Putin for many years, however the obvious coup try fizzled halfway to the capital.
In August 2023, he died a fiery demise when the private plane he was on crashed north of Moscow, elevating suspicions of Kremlin involvement.
The Kremlin denied assassinating Mr Prigozhin, calling accusations of Mr Putin’s involvement “an absolute lie”.
Anna Politkovskaya
On 7 October 2006 – Mr Putin’s birthday – journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot within the foyer of her condo constructing.
Earlier than her demise, she had specialised in investigating human rights abuses in Chechnya and corruption extra broadly.
Her killing led to claims that Mr Putin had not finished sufficient to guard the media.
He described the homicide as “abominable in its cruelty” and commented that her demise brought about extra issues for the Kremlin than her work.
Learn extra:
How a KGB agent rose to the top of the Kremlin
Who is jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny?
Boris Nemtsov
A former deputy prime minister of Russia below President Boris Yeltsin, Boris Nemtsov was a fierce critic of Putin and a distinguished opposition chief.
He had been engaged on a report analyzing Russia’s position within the battle in Ukraine in 2015.
However, aged 55, he was killed earlier than it was completed. Mr Nemtsov was shot lifeless on a bridge simply metres from the Kremlin as he walked residence at evening together with his girlfriend.
Five men were found guilty of organising and finishing up the contract killing. Zaur Dadayev, an officer in Chechen chief and Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov’s safety forces, was discovered responsible of firing the deadly pictures.
The Kremlin denied involvement within the killing.
Alexander Litvinenko
A former agent with the Russian FSB safety service, Alexander Litvinenko fled Russia and ultimately gained British citizenship.
He had accused Mr Putin of corruption and likewise blamed him for the notorious Moscow condo bombings which Mr Putin, then prime minister, had used as a cause to start out the Second Chechen Conflict in 1999. It proved vastly fashionable and helped carry him to energy.
Litvinenko died in November 2006, weeks after consuming tea that had been poisoned with polonium-210, a rare and very potent radioactive isotope.
The poison was ingested throughout a gathering with two Russian spies on the Millennium Resort in London and the killing is thought to have been signed off by Putin himself. Russia has all the time denied any involvement.
Garry Kasparov
Thought to be one of many biggest chess gamers of all time, Garry Kasparov has been dwelling in exile in New York since 2013.
The previous world champion had develop into an impassioned campaigner towards Mr Putin’s rule and took half in among the mass opposition road protests organised by Alexei Navalny.
He has mentioned he fears arrest were he to return to Russia.
Ravil Maganov
The chairman of the board of Russia’s second largest oil producer Lukoil, Ravil Maganov had overtly criticised the battle in Ukraine.
In an announcement in March 2022, the board known as for the “soonest termination of the armed battle” and expressed “honest empathy for all victims”.
It added: “We strongly help a long-lasting ceasefire and a settlement of issues by means of severe negotiations and diplomacy.”
In September that 12 months, 67-year-old Mr Maganov died after apparently falling from a sixth-floor window on the Central Medical Hospital in Moscow.
Paul Klebnikov
Investigative journalist, Paul Klebnikov, an American of Russian descent, was killed outdoors his workplace in a drive-by capturing in Moscow in 2004.
He was the editor of Forbes Russia and had written about corruption.
Forbes had additionally printed a listing of the nation’s richest individuals.
Natalia Estemirova
Natalia Estemirova was an award-winning human rights campaigner who had collected proof of abuses in Chechnya for the reason that begin of the second battle there in 1999.
She was kidnapped close to her residence on 15 July 2009 within the Chechen capital, Grozny.
A number of hours later her physique was present in an space of woodland, with gunshots wounds to the top and chest.
Then president Dmitry Medvedev rejected claims that Chechnyan chief Ramzan Kadyrov was accountable and instructed the killing had been carried out to discredit the Kremlin.
Denis Voronenkov
A former Russian politician, Denis Voronenkov was an outspoken critic of Mr Putin.
Beforehand a member of the communist faction within the decrease home of Russian parliament, Mr Voronenkov fled to Ukraine in 2016 and was granted Ukrainian citizenship.
He was shot and killed in Kyiv in March 2017.
Ukraine’s then president Petro Poroshenko described his killing as an “act of state terrorism” by Russia – an accusation rejected by the Kremlin.
Boris Berezovsky
Former billionaire Boris Berezovsky had been dwelling in exile in Britain since 2000 when he was found dead in 2013.
He made his fortune in Russia within the Nineteen Nineties through the mass unload of state belongings following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
As soon as extremely wealthy, in his later years his fortune is believed to have dwindled.
James Nixey, head of Chatham Home’s Russia programme, beforehand described him as “essentially the most virulently anti-Kremlin, anti-Putin of the oligarchs”.
“He was actually prepared to spend his cash, what little he had left, in an try to make use of it to finish the present regime in Russia.”
Mr Berezovsky was discovered lifeless at his residence in Berkshire. An inquest recorded an open verdict amid conflicting proof about the way in which his physique was discovered hanged.
Sergei Skripal
Previously a colonel with Russian army intelligence earlier than leaving in 1999, Sergei Skripal went on to work on the nation’s international ministry till 2003.
He was arrested in Moscow a year later and confessed to having been recruited by British intelligence in 1995.
He mentioned he had given data to British intelligence about Russian brokers in Europe in return for round $100,000 (£79,300).
Mr Skripal was jailed however later launched in a spy swap and moved to the UK.
In 2018, alongside together with his daughter, he was poisoned with the nerve agent novichok however the pair survived the assault.
The Kremlin denied that Russia was in any manner concerned within the poisoning, describing British accusations that an assault had been authorised by senior Russian officers as “unacceptable”.
Sergei Yushenkov
Liberal Russian politician Sergei Yushenkov was shot lifeless in a Moscow suburb in 2003.
A member of the State Duma and former colonel within the Soviet military, Mr Yushenkov was shot a number of instances outdoors his condo constructing.
He had been concerned in establishing the Liberal Russia Social gathering, which had achieved full registration simply hours earlier than he was killed.
Mr Yushenkov had been prepared to talk out towards Putin and the battle in Chechnya.
