Alexei Navalny, the fiercest enemy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has died at the age of 47

The man who fought against government corruption and led mass anti-Kremlin protests was the subject of Daniel Rohr's Oscar-winning 2022 documentary.

Alexei Navalny, a staunch foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin who fought against government corruption and led mass anti-Kremlin protests, died in prison on Friday, Russia's prison agency said. He was 47 years old.

The Federal Prison Service said in a statement that Navalny felt unwell and lost consciousness after a walk on Friday. An ambulance arrived to try to revive him but he died.

Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmish said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the politician's team had not yet received confirmation of his death and that his lawyer was traveling to the city. where it was kept.

Daniel Rohr's 2022 documentary Navalny tells the story of the opposition leader's fight against Putin. It won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2023.

Navalny, who was serving a 19-year sentence for extremism, was transferred from his former prison in central Russia's Vladimir region to a "special regime" penal colony in December. Arctic Circle.

His allies rejected the move to a colony in the town of Kharap in the Yamalo-Nents region, about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow, in another attempt to silence Navalny. is as

The remote area is notorious for long and harsh winters. Kharap is about 100 kilometers (60 mi) from Vorkota, whose coal mines were part of the Soviet Gulag prison camp system.

Navalny had been behind bars since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow after recovering from a nerve agent poisoning in Germany that he blamed on the Kremlin. Before his arrest, he campaigned against government corruption, organized large anti-Kremlin protests and ran for public office.

He was subsequently sentenced to three prison terms, all of which he dismissed as politically motivated.

In Putin's Russia, political opponents often end up among factions or exiled after imprisonment, suspected poisoning or other severe repression. But Navalny grew stronger and rose to the top of the opposition through patience, bravado and a keen understanding of how social media could prevent the Kremlin's stranglehold on independent news outlets.

He faced every setback - be it physical assault or imprisonment - with fierce devotion, confronting the dangers with a wry wit. This led him to the daring and daring move of returning from Germany to Russia and certain capture.

Navalny was born in Botan, about 40 kilometers (25 mi) outside Moscow. He received his law degree from People's Friendship University in 1998 and a fellowship at Yale in 2010.

It gained attention by focusing on corruption in Russia's politicians and business institutions. One of his early moves was to buy stakes in Russian oil and gas companies to become an active shareholder and promote transparency. By focusing on corruption, Navalny's work had a pocketbook appeal to Russians' widespread sense of betrayal, and resonated more strongly with democratic ideals and more abstract and philosophical concerns about human rights.

In 2013, Navalny was convicted of embezzlement in what he called a politically motivated prosecution and sentenced to five years in prison, but the prosecutor's office later surprisingly called for his release. That appeal is pending. Later, a high court gave him a suspended sentence.

The day before the conviction, Navalny registered as a candidate for mayor of Moscow. The opposition saw his release as the result of mass protests in the capital over his conviction, but many observers attributed it to the authorities' desire to add legitimacy to the mayoral election.

Navalny finished second, an impressive performance against an incumbent backed by Putin's political machine and known for improving the capital's infrastructure and aesthetics.

Navalny's popularity rose after the well-known charismatic politician Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on a bridge near the Kremlin in 2015.

Whenever Putin spoke about Navalny, he made a point never to mention the activist by name, referring to him as "that guy" or similar in an apparent attempt to downplay his importance. Refer to the words.