Alexey Navalny, a potent political foe who never shied away from criticizing Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, even from prison, has died in a penal colony, Russian prison authorities said Friday. The Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous region reported his death. There was no immediate confirmation from Navalny’s allies.

Navalny, who emerged as the most outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin’s government before he was imprisoned in 2021, was initially serving a nine-year sentence in a high-security prison about 150 miles east of Moscow for parole violations, fraud, and contempt of court when he was convicted of promoting “extremism.” He had his sentence extended by 19 years in August 2023.

Navalny and many outside observers have always considered the charges against him to be politically motivated retaliation for his criticism of Putin and the Kremlin’s policies, both foreign and domestic, and the U.S. has condemned the various verdicts against him.

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