Moscow. Alexei Navalny’s mother was told on Saturday that Russia’s most prominent opposition leader died of ‘Sudden Death Syndrome’ and his body will not be handed over to the family until the investigation is completed. News agency Reuters gave this information on Saturday quoting Alexey’s team. Russia’s prison agency had said that after taking a walk on Friday, jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny (47) felt health problems and fainted. It said an ambulance arrived to help Navalny, but he died.
Apart from his wife, Navalny has a son and a daughter in his family. Navalny was known for widespread protests against corruption in the government and the Kremlin, the Russian ruling establishment. Navalny was serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges. He was transferred in December from a prison in the Vladimir region of central Russia to one of Russia’s highest-security prisons in the city of Kharp in the remote Arctic region.
He had been behind bars since January 2021 when he returned to Moscow after receiving treatment in Germany following a nerve agent poisoning attack. He blamed the Kremlin for the nerve agent poisoning attack. Navalny was born in Butin, about 40 kilometers from Moscow. He received a law degree from People’s Friendship University in 1998 and a fellowship at Yale in 2010.
When talking about Navalny, Putin has never mentioned him by name in an apparent attempt to play down his importance, referring to him as ‘that person’ or similar terms. Soon after Navalny’s death was reported, Russia’s ‘Sota’ social media channel reportedly shared pictures of the opposition leader during his appearance before the court.
What is Sudden Death Syndrome?
SDS is not a formal diagnosis of a condition or disease and does not necessarily indicate any specific medical condition. Sudden death syndrome is an umbrella term for several biological scenarios that begin immediately and lead to death. The person involved often has little or no warning signs of the disease.