THE RUSSIA CONNECTIONThe List Is Long: Russians Who Have Died After Running Afoul of the Kremlin
The list of influential Russians who have been killed or died in murky circumstances after opposing, criticizing, or crossing Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin, or the state is long. It has just gotten longer.
Editor’s note: Vladimir Putin’s intelligence operatives have killed many critics of the regime, both in Russia and abroad — among them opposition politicians, journalists, academics, artists, former spies, oligarchs, and businesspeople. Russian intelligence operatives, however, have also killed Russians who were not outspoken critics of the regime, leading Russia experts to speculate that Putin has adopted a milder version of Stalin’s tactics of random killings in order to instill a generalized sense of fear and insecurity among members of the Russian elite. In August 2023, HSNW published an article offering a list of 175 dead Russians — 30 businesspeople; 23 politicians, diplomats, academics, and senior military officers; and 122 journalists — who were killed, or who died under mysterious, often exceedingly implausible, circumstances, since Putin came to power. See “Putin’s Victims: A Long List Getting Longer,” HSNW, 24 August 2023.
The list of influential Russians who have been killed or died in murky circumstances after opposing, criticizing, or crossing Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin, or the state is long. And it may be getting longer.
If his death is confirmed, the latest addition will be Aleksei Navalny, the imprisoned opposition politician who crusaded against official corruption and led massive anti-Kremlin protests, earning him the ire of Putin, who made a point of not uttering his name in public.
Navalny died on February 16 in the Arctic prison where he was serving a 19-year sentence, Russia’s prison service said. Navalny, 47, felt ill after a walk earlier that day, according to the Federal Penitentiary Service, and then lost consciousness. An ambulance arrived, but he could not be revived, a statement said, adding that the cause of death was “being established.”
Navalny’s reported death comes less than a month before a presidential election is widely expected to hand Putin another six years in power.
These are some of the prominent people who have died violent or suspicious deaths since Putin came to power 24 years ago, serving as both president and prime minister of Russia.
Not featured here are those who have survived close calls — such as the former military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, who was poisoned along with his daughter in March 2018.
