WASHINGTON D.C., DC — Russian government officials announced Friday that opposition leader Alexey Navalny died while serving a sentence in a Siberian prison.
Navalny has been jailed since 2021 for his opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin and claimed that a nerve gas poisoning in 2020 was an assassination attempt.
News of his death has renewed interest in his life, including some more controversial aspects of his past. “Navalny” trended online all day Friday, but not all of the claims about his life and death are true.
QUESTION
Did Alexey Navalny appear healthy during a court appearance hours before his death?
SOURCES
ANSWER
Video shown by multiple news outlets from around the world showed Navalny in good condition Thursday
WHAT WE FOUND
SOTAvision, an independent, online Russian news outlet, posted courtroom video from Thursday. It shows Alexey Navalny on a screen, making an appearance by video link.
Other major news outlets from around the world, including CBS and Reuters, posted the video and reported on the court hearing. Navalny could be seen joking with the judge and later posted on X that he had been sentenced to another stint in solitary confinement.
QUESTION
Did Alexey Navalny have a history of making nationalist, white-supremacist, sometimes violent statements?
SOURCES
- Amnesty International
- An interview with Alexey Navalny
- Alexey Navalny's YouTube page
ANSWER
Navalny did not shy away from some of his nationalist views, though a friend said he had softened over time
WHAT WE FOUND
Amnesty International delisted Navalny as a “prisoner of conscience” in 2021 because of un-renounced statements the organization concluded amounted to “advocacy of hatred.” However, Amnesty International continued to criticize his imprisonment for opposing Vladimir Putin as unjust.
Videos posted to Navalny's YouTube channel in the 2000s evoked violence against Muslims. He also told German news outlet Der Spiegel in a 2020 interview that he supported stricter migration laws on people from Central Asia, and said his views have been the same throughout his political career.
QUESTION
Did Alexey Navalny record a video to be shared in the event of his death?
SOURCES
- "Navalny"
- CNN
ANSWER
Alexey Navalny did record a message about his death, but it was part of a previously released film.
WHAT WE FOUND
This video has been widely shared on social media since Navalny's death was announced. It shows him speaking into a camera and explaining what he would want his followers to know in the event of his death. Many social media users wrote that it was specifically to be shared if he died in prison.
The clip was actually part of the 2022 documentary, “Navalny,” produced by CNN Films, in which he is answering the filmmaker’s question about what message he would have for Russian people if he was killed.
However, the message remains the same—he tells his supporters not to give up their opposition to Putin's regime.