Putin critic Alexei Navalny dies in prison

Russian politician and activist Alexei Navalny has died in an Arctic Circle jail, the country's prison service announced today.

 The 47-year-old was widely viewed as Vladimir Putin's "most vociferous critic", said the BBC, and was serving a 19-year sentence on charges "widely considered politically motivated". Navalny was moved to an Arctic penal colony last year and had spent long periods in solitary confinement. 

The Yamalo-Nenets district prison service released a statement that said Navalny had "felt unwell" following a walk on Friday. He "almost immediately lost consciousness" and, despite efforts by emergency medical staff to resuscitate him, could not be revived, according to the statement, which said the cause of death was under investigation.

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Navalny's lawyer Leonid Solovyev told Latvia-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe that he could not confirm the death and that Navalny's family had asked for him not to comment. "Alexei had a lawyer at his place on Wednesday," said  Solovyev. "Everything was normal then."

Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT said Navalny had died as a result of a blood clot.

His death is "likely to be seen as a political assassination" ordered by Putin, said The Guardian. A spokesperson for the Russian leader said the Kremlin had no information on the cause of Navalny's death.

Speaking during a visit to Germany, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that "obviously, Navalny was killed by Putin, like so many thousands of others". Putin has to be "held accountable for his actions", Zelenskyy said at a joint press conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin.