The authorities of the Russian Federation have announced the death of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a penitentiary in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, where he was serving a long jail term. The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Autonomous District said that Navalny “felt unwell” after a walk, IPN reports.

Navalny, the prison service said, had lost consciousness almost immediately. “The medical staff of the institution arrived immediately, and an ambulance team was called,” the prison service said. “All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, which did not yield positive results. Doctors of the ambulance stated the death of the convict. The causes of death are being established.”

Putin has been told about Navalny’s death, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Alexei Navalny, 47, was serving an 11-and-a-half-year prison sentence given to him in 2021 “for embezzlement and parole violation” while being treated for poisoning in Germany. In August 2023, judges of the Moscow City Court found Navalny guilty of creating an extremist organization and more than doubled his prison term to 19 years, ruling that one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sharpest critics must be transferred to a harsher “special regime” facility, rather than the maximum-security prison where he was being held.