Do you know about 7 Russians who opposed Vladimir Putin and paid a heavy price?
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a top Russian mercenary, was believed to have died when a private plane carrying him crashed north of Moscow, leaving no survivors.
On June 23–24, Prigozhin, 62, led a coup against Russia’s top military leaders that President Vladimir Putin claimed had the potential to plunge the country into civil war.
Others who disagreed with Putin or his goals also passed away mysteriously or were in danger of dying.
Also read: Putin has ‘absolutely’ been weakened after revolt in Russia: Biden
The unlucky 7 Russians who opposed Vladimir Putin and paid a heavy price: Here are some details about these mysterious incidents:
1- Alexei Navalny
In August 2020, Alexei Navalny, the most prominent opposition figure in Russia, was transported to Germany for medical care after being poisoned in Siberia with what Western experts determined to be the military nerve agent Novichok. Russia has refuted all allegations.
Navalny won praise from people all over the world for voluntarily going back to Russia in 2021. When he arrived, he was detained right away.
He is currently serving sentences totalling 11 and a half years for fraud and other alleged false charges.
His political movement has been labelled “extremist” and outlawed. Recently, Navalny’s sentence was extended by 19 more years in a maximum security prison colony.
2- Sergei Skripal
In March 2018, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were discovered unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in the English cathedral city of Salisbury.
Sergei Skripal was a former Russian double agent who divulged information to British intelligence.
British officials reported that they had been poisoned with Novichok, a class of nerve agents created by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s when they were taken to the hospital in critical condition. They both lived.
Russia has said that Britain is inciting anti-Russian hysteria and has denied any involvement in the poisoning.
3- Vladimir Kara-Murza
Vladimir Kara-Murza, a member of the Russian opposition, claimed that he thought attempts were made to poison him in 2015 and 2017.
According to medical records viewed by Reuters, a German laboratory later discovered elevated levels of mercury, copper, manganese, and zinc in him. Moscow denied taking part.
4- Alexander Litvinenko
According to British officials, Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-KGB agent and outspoken opponent of Putin, passed away in 2006 at the age of 43 after consuming green tea that had been tainted with the radioactive isotope polonium-210 at London’s Millennium Hotel.
A British investigation found that Putin probably gave the murder his approval in 2016. Kremlin involvement has been refuted.
Former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoy and another Russian, Dmitry Kovtun, were found to have carried out the murder as part of an operation that was likely directed by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the primary successor to the Soviet-era KGB, according to an investigation led by a senior British judge.
The day before Litvinenko was poisoned, six years prior, he left Russia for Britain.
5- Alexander Perepillichny
In November 2012, the 44-year-old Russian was discovered dead close to his opulent home on a private gated estate outside of London after going for a jog.
After assisting a Swiss investigation into a Russian money-laundering scheme in 2009, Alexander Perepilichny sought asylum in Britain. His sudden demise led to speculation that he may have been murdered.
Despite their suspicions that he might have been killed with a rare poison, the British police ruled out foul play. Traces of a deadly and rare poison from the gelsemium plant were discovered in his stomach, according to a pre-inquest hearing.
Perepilichny had tucked into a big bowl of sorrel soup, a favourite in Russia. Russia denied taking part.
6- Viktor Yushchenko
During the 2004 presidential election campaign, when Viktor Yushchenko, a leader of the Ukrainian opposition at the time, ran against pro-Moscow Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich on a pro-Western platform, he was poisoned.
He claimed to have been poisoned while dining outside of Kiev with representatives of the Ukrainian security services. Russian involvement was denied.
It was discovered that his body had 1,000 times the normal amount of dioxin. He underwent dozens of operations as a result of the poisoning, which left his face and body disfigured.
After Yanukovich’s victory was overturned by Ukraine’s Supreme Court amid “Orange Revolution”-style street protests, a new election was held, and he was declared the winner.
7- Anna Politkovskaya
Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who covered violations of human rights, was shot and killed outside her Moscow apartment on October 7, 2006, after coming home from the store.
The murder of 48-year-old mother-of-two Politkovskaya sparked outrage in the West and highlighted worries about the risks facing reporters covering Russia.
