Most of the deaths are by no means solved and stay listed as unintended and suicides.
Jailed Russian opposition determine and outspoken Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny died Friday in an Arctic Circle jail, the Russian jail service stated. However his dying is barely the newest of an extended line of Vladimir Putin’s critics who’ve been jailed, silenced or met brutal ends over time. From aircraft crashes, unintended falls from home windows to hangings, poisonings and well being points, lots of the Russian President’s critics seem to have been focused in numerous methods. Most of the deaths are by no means solved and stay listed as unintended and suicides.
This is a have a look at a number of the high-profile deaths involving those that have criticised the Russian chief over time –
Yevgeny Prigozhin
The previous head of the Wagner paramilitary group was as soon as one of many nation’s strongest oligarchs and a member of Mr Putin’s trusted interior circle. He died in 2023 on the age of 62 when the aircraft he was flying in exploded midair. Notably, the unexplained blast got here two months after Mr Prigozhin led a failed mutiny towards Russia’s Ministry of Defence over a disagreement with the route of Moscow’s warfare in Ukraine.
He led a dramatic “march for justice” the place armed males have been seen heading in the direction of the Russian capital in June 2023. As Mr Putin remained silent, the mutiny was out of the blue aborted. Mr Prigozhin ordered his troops to put down their arms, earlier than they have been relocated to Belarus beneath a deal brokered by that nation’s Russia-allied president, Alexander Lukashenko. However two months later, Mr Prigozhin plummeted from the sky when the jet he was flying on from Moscow to St Petersburg apparently exploded.
Kremlin critics and Western international locations steered foul play. Nevertheless, the Kremlin denied any involvement within the downing of the plane.
Boris Nemtsov
Boris Nemtsov, a vocal Kremlin critic who was a deputy prime minister within the late Nineties beneath President Boris Yeltsin, was gunned down in February 2015 on a bridge near the Kremlin in Moscow. In line with the CNN, he had been arrested a number of occasions for talking towards Mr Putin’s authorities. When he was killed, he was serving to to arrange a rally towards the Russian army incursion in Ukraine, which started in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and the assist of supposed separatists within the Donbas in jap Ukraine.
Boris Berezovsky
Boris Berezovsky was as soon as a robust Russian businessman who fell out with the Kremlin and fled to England. He had amassed his wealth following the collapse of the Soviet Union. A big chunk of his fortune got here from the sale of luxurious vehicles. However his wealth and political affect skyrocketed when he purchased into Russian media. He relocated to Britain after dropping favour with Mr Putin’s authorities.
In 2013, Mr Berezovsky was discovered lifeless on the lavatory ground of his UK residence with a noose round his neck. British police stated on the time that there have been no indicators of battle and steered that he had taken his personal life.
Alexander Litvinenko
Mr Litvinenko was a former Russian spy turned Kremlin critic. A British inquiry decided Alexander Litvinenko had been poisoned at a London resort bar in 2006 by two Russian brokers who spiked his inexperienced tea with the extremely radioactive polonium-210, CNN reported. Mr Litvinenko additionally all the time asserted that Mr Putin and the Kremlin have been answerable for what had occurred to him.
However the Kremlin has all the time denied the accusation and has refused to extradite the 2 brokers accused of the poisoning to Britain.
Ravil Maganov
Ravil Maganov, the chairman of the board of Russia’s second largest oil producer Lukoil, died six months after he brazenly criticised the warfare in Ukraine. He died after falling out of the window of a Moscow hospital. Russian state information company Tass claimed his dying was a suicide.
Anna Politkovskaya
Ms Politkovskaya was a vocal critic of Russia’s warfare in Chechnya. She was gunned down within the entrance of her Moscow residence in October 2006. Her dying garnered worldwide consideration and it wasn’t till June 2014 that 5 males have been sentenced for the killing, however it stays unclear who ordered the homicide.
However shortly after her dying, Mr Putin denied any Kremlin involvement in her killing, saying that Ms Politkovskaya’s “dying in itself is extra damaging to the present authorities each in Russia and the Chechen Republic … than her actions”.
Sergei Magnitsky
Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian tax adviser who uncovered corruption, was detained with out a trial and died in jail simply seven days earlier than he was set to be launched. He was arrested in 2008 and died on 16 November 2009.
Alexander Perepilichnyy
Mr Perepilichnyy was a financier who turned a whistleblower in 2010 when he handed over information to Swiss officers displaying particulars of the $230 million theft of funds from the Russian treasury. He died throughout a jog near London in 2012 after leaving Russia in 2009. Whereas he was discovered to in all probability have died of pure causes, there are allegations that he was poisoned.
Notably, aside from the folks talked about above, at the least 13 high-profile Russian businessmen have reportedly died by suicide or in mysterious circumstances over the previous 12 months, as per CNN.