Poisonings, plane crashes and falls from windows: What happened to Putin’s most vocal critics
Alexei Navalny has become the latest in a string of deaths of critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Over his more than two decades at the top of the Kremlin, a number of Mr Putin’s opponents have suffered unfortunate fates – including being jailed, shot dead in the street, or poisoned with tea spiked with polonium-210.
Follow live – Putin critic dies after ‘feeling unwell’ and ‘losing consciousness’
Who are the people who have dared speak out against Mr Putin or defy the Kremlin, and where are they now?
Alexei Navalny appears on video link from the IK-3 penal colony. Pic: Reuters
Alexei Navalny
Born to factory owners in a village west of Moscow, Alexei Navalny grew to become perhaps the highest-profile critic of Mr Putin’s time in power.
His political activism, including extensive investigations into high-level corruption and running to be mayor of Moscow, gained him fame – and many believed he posed a threat to Mr Putin.
It was in August 2020 when his fight against the Russian president hit the global headlines.
Mr Navalny fell gravely ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow and he was flown, still in a coma, to Berlin.
His team accused the Kremlin of poisoning him, a charge the Kremlin denied.
German medics confirmed that he had been poisoned with novichok – a Soviet-era nerve agent – and his recovery took months.
Despite the danger, Mr Navalny elected to return to Russia where he was later arrested, convicted on charges he says are politically motivated, and sent to a Russian penal colony.
Russian officials said Mr Navalny died in prison.
Boris Nadezhdin speaks in Moscow. Pic: AP
Boris Nadezhdin
Opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin declared that he would run against Mr Putin in the 2024 presidential election.
Despite doubts that the 60-year-old could present a serious challenge to the incumbent leader, Mr Nadezhdin said he had gathered more than 200,000 signatures from across Russia.
He had surprised some analysts with his strong criticism of what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, calling the war a “fatal mistake” and vowing to try to end it through negotiations.
On 8 February, he said he had been barred from running in the election and the Central Election Commission said it had found flaws in signatures his campaign had collected.
He vowed to appeal to Russia’s supreme court, adding: “Taking part in the presidential election in 2024 is the most important political decision of my life. I am not giving up on my intentions.”
Speaking to Sky News last year, Mr Nadezhdin said he was not afraid of speaking out “because I have a long life” and he had faced death several times.
From hotdog seller to Wagner Group mercenary chief. Pic: Razgruzka_Vagnera telegram
Yevgeny Prigozhin
The ascension of Yevgeny Prigozhin from a hot dog seller to the boss of a private army which marched on Moscow was remarkable.
His Wagner Group mercenaries were notorious both for their brutality in Ukraine but also their influence in Africa.
Prigozhin became increasingly bold in his criticism of the Russian military and its top command.
Wreckage of the private jet that crashed with Yevgeny Prigozhin on board. Pic: Reuters
When his forces began a march on Moscow from the southern city of Rostov it appeared to be the biggest challenge to Mr Putin for decades, but the apparent coup attempt fizzled halfway to the capital.
In August 2023, he died a fiery death when the private plane he was on crashed north of Moscow, raising suspicions of Kremlin involvement.
The Kremlin denied assassinating Mr Prigozhin, calling accusations of Mr Putin’s involvement “an absolute lie”.
A commemorative rally in St Petersburg for journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2009. Pic: Reuters
Anna Politkovskaya
On 7 October 2006 – Mr Putin’s birthday – journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot in the lobby of her apartment building.
Before her death, she had specialised in investigating human rights abuses in Chechnya and corruption more broadly.
Her killing led to claims that Mr Putin had not done enough to protect the media.
He described the murder as “abominable in its cruelty” and commented that her death caused more problems for the Kremlin than her work.
Read more:
How a KGB agent rose to the top of the Kremlin
Who is jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny?
Boris Nemtsov speaks in Moscow in 2007
Boris Nemtsov
A former deputy prime minister of Russia under President Boris Yeltsin, Boris Nemtsov was a fierce critic of Putin and a prominent opposition leader.
He had been working on a report examining Russia’s role in the conflict in Ukraine in 2015.
But, aged 55, he was killed before it was finished. Mr Nemtsov was shot dead on a bridge just metres from the Kremlin as he walked home at night with his girlfriend.
Five men were found guilty of organising and carrying out the contract killing. Zaur Dadayev, an officer in Chechen leader and Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov’s security forces, was found guilty of firing the fatal shots.
The Kremlin denied involvement in the killing.
Alexei Navalny speaks with Garry Kasparov during a protest in Moscow in 2012. Pic: Reuters
Alexander Litvinenko
A former agent with the Russian FSB security service, Alexander Litvinenko fled Russia and eventually gained British citizenship.
He had accused Mr Putin of corruption and also blamed him for the infamous Moscow apartment bombings which Mr Putin, then prime minister, had used as a reason to start the Second Chechen War in 1999. It proved hugely popular and helped bring him to power.
Litvinenko died in November 2006, weeks after drinking tea that had been poisoned with polonium-210, a rare and very potent radioactive isotope.
The poison was ingested during a meeting with two Russian spies at the Millennium Hotel in London and the killing is thought to have been signed off by Putin himself. Russia has always denied any involvement.
Garry Kasparov
Regarded as one of the greatest chess players of all time, Garry Kasparov has been living in exile in New York since 2013.
The former world champion had become an impassioned campaigner against Mr Putin’s rule and took part in some of the mass opposition street protests organised by Alexei Navalny.
He has said he fears arrest were he to return to Russia.
Ravil Maganov with President Vladimir Putin in 2019. Pic: Reuters
Ravil Maganov
The chairman of the board of Russia’s second largest oil producer Lukoil, Ravil Maganov had openly criticised the war in Ukraine.
In a statement in March 2022, the board called for the “soonest termination of the armed conflict” and expressed “sincere empathy for all victims”.
It added: “We strongly support a lasting ceasefire and a settlement of problems through serious negotiations and diplomacy.”
In September that year, 67-year-old Mr Maganov died after apparently falling from a sixth-floor window at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow.
Paul Klebnikov. Pic: AP
Paul Klebnikov
Investigative journalist, Paul Klebnikov, an American of Russian descent, was killed outside his office in a drive-by shooting in Moscow in 2004.
He was the editor of Forbes Russia and had written about corruption.
Forbes had also published a list of the country’s richest people.
Chechen journalist and activist Natalia Estemirova. Pic: Reuters
Natalia Estemirova
Natalia Estemirova was an award-winning human rights campaigner who had collected evidence of abuses in Chechnya since the start of the second war there in 1999.
She was kidnapped near her home on 15 July 2009 in the Chechen capital, Grozny.
Several hours later her body was found in an area of woodland, with gunshots wounds to the head and chest.
Then president Dmitry Medvedev rejected claims that Chechnyan leader Ramzan Kadyrov was responsible and suggested the killing had been carried out to discredit the Kremlin.
Maria Maksakova, widow of Denis Voronenkov, at his memorial service in Ukraine. Pic: Reuters
Denis Voronenkov
A former Russian politician, Denis Voronenkov was an outspoken critic of Mr Putin.
Previously a member of the communist faction in the lower house of Russian parliament, Mr Voronenkov fled to Ukraine in 2016 and was granted Ukrainian citizenship.
He was shot and killed in Kyiv in March 2017.
Ukraine’s then president Petro Poroshenko described his killing as an “act of state terrorism” by Russia – an accusation rejected by the Kremlin.
Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Pic: Reuters
Boris Berezovsky
Former billionaire Boris Berezovsky had been living in exile in Britain since 2000 when he was found dead in 2013.
He made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s during the mass sell off of state assets following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Once incredibly rich, in his later years his fortune is believed to have dwindled.
James Nixey, head of Chatham House’s Russia programme, previously described him as “the most virulently anti-Kremlin, anti-Putin of the oligarchs”.
“He was certainly willing to spend his money, what little he had left, in an attempt to use it to end the current regime in Russia.”
Mr Berezovsky was found dead at his home in Berkshire. An inquest recorded an open verdict amid conflicting evidence about the way his body was found hanged.
Forensic workers in Salisbury after the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter. Pic: PA
Sergei Skripal
Formerly a colonel with Russian military intelligence before leaving in 1999, Sergei Skripal went on to work at the country’s foreign ministry until 2003.
He was arrested in Moscow a year later and confessed to having been recruited by British intelligence in 1995.
He said he had given information to British intelligence about Russian agents in Europe in return for around $100,000 (£79,300).
Mr Skripal was jailed but later released in a spy swap and moved to the UK.
In 2018, along with his daughter, he was poisoned with the nerve agent novichok but the pair survived the attack.
The Kremlin denied that Russia was in any way involved in the poisoning, describing British accusations that an attack had been approved by senior Russian officials as “unacceptable”.
Sergei Yushenkov was shot dead in 2003 Pic: AP
Sergei Yushenkov
Liberal Russian politician Sergei Yushenkov was shot dead in a Moscow suburb in 2003.
A member of the State Duma and former colonel in the Soviet army, Mr Yushenkov was shot several times outside his apartment building.
He had been involved in setting up the Liberal Russia Party, which had achieved full registration just hours before he was killed.
Mr Yushenkov had been willing to speak out against Putin and the war in Chechnya.
The US secretary of state has hailed a “tremendous amount of progress” on peace talks after the US and Ukraine delegations met in Geneva – but said that negotiators would “need more time”.
Marco Rubio said the meetings in Switzerland on Sunday have been “the most productive and meaningful” of the peace process so far.
He said the US was making “some changes” to the peace plan, seemingly based on Ukrainian suggestions, “in the hopes of further narrowing the differences and getting closer to something that both Ukraine and obviously the United States are very comfortable with”.
Mr Rubio struck an optimistic tone talking to the media after discussions but was light on the details, saying there was still work to be done.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio in Geneva after peace talks with Ukraine. Pic: Reuters
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Analysis: Rubio strikes an optimistic tone – but is light on detail
“I don’t want to declare victory or finality here. There’s still some work to be done, but we are much further ahead today at this time than we were when we began this morning and where we were a week ago for certain,” Mr Rubio said.
He also stressed: “We just need more time than what we have today. I honestly believe we’ll get there.”
Sky News’ defence analyst Michael Clarke said on the initial US-Russian 28-point peace plan that it was Donald Trump against the world, with maybe only Moscow on his side.
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Is Trump’s plan a ‘capitulation document’?
Mr Rubio praised the Ukrainian attitude towards the talks and said Mr Trump was “quite pleased” after he previously said in a social media post that Ukraine’s leaders had expressed “ZERO GRATITUDE” for US efforts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Sunday that there are signs that “President Trump’s team hears us”.
In a news release on Sunday evening, the White House said the day “marked a significant step forward”.
“Ukrainian representatives stated that, based on the revisions and clarifications presented today, they believe the current draft reflects their national interests and provides credible and enforceable mechanisms to safeguard Ukraine’s security in both the near and long term,” it claimed.
Despite diplomatic progress in Geneva the finish line remains a long way off
We’ve witnessed a day of determined and decidedly frantic diplomacy in this well-heeled city.
Camera crews were perched on street corners and long convoys of black vehicles swept down Geneva’s throughfares as the Ukrainians worked hard to keep the Americans on side.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio did not want to go into details at a press “gaggle” held at the US Mission this evening, but he seemed to think they had made more progress in the last 96 hours than the previous 10 months combined.
The Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy also seemed satisfied enough, posting on Telegram that there were “signals President Trump’s team is hearing us” after a day of “numerous meetings and negotiations”.
That said, we are a long way from the finish line here – something Rubio acknowledged when he said that any proposal agreed here would have to be handed over to the Russians.
At that point, negotiations to stop the war would surely get tougher.
President Putin has shown little or no inclination to stop the conflict thus far.
This, then, is the most important reason the Ukrainians seem determined to keep the Americans on side.
European leaders have presented a counter proposal to the widely criticised US-Russian peace plan, with suggestions including a cap on Ukraine’s peacetime army and readmitting Moscow into the G8.
This will only take place if the plan is agreed to by the US, Russia and Ukraine, and the G7 signs off on the move. Russia was expelled after annexing Crimea in 2014.
The counter proposal also includes US guarantees to Ukraine that mirror NATO’s Article 5 – the idea that “an armed attack against one NATO member shall be considered an attack against them all”.
The initial peace plan was worked up by the White House and Kremlin without Ukraine’s involvement, and it acquiesces to many of Russia’s previous demands.
Read more:
Who actually wrote US-Russian peace plan for Ukraine?
In full: Europe’s 28-point counter proposal to US-Russia plan
It covers a range of issues – from territorial concessions to reconstruction programmes, the future Ukrainian relationship with NATO and the EU, and educational reforms in both Ukraine and Russia.
Footage geolocated by Sky News showed Russian soldiers walking through the Shakhtarskyi neighbourhood on the outskirts of Pokrovsk on Thursday.
The video sheds light on the situation in this key frontline area, as Russian forces slowly encroach on Myrnohrad, the satellite town to Pokrovsk, and one of its last remaining outposts.
Videos geolocated by Sky News show fighting intensifying in recent weeks, as Russian forces attempt to gain control of the towns and their network of road and rail intersections.
Gaining control here would give Russia a base from which to access key cities further north that form part of Ukraine’s “fortress belt”.
Russian forces are advancing from all directions, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), with only one small opening to the northwest of Myrnohrad remaining.
Estimated to be only 3km wide by military experts, this withdrawal corridor is patrolled by Russian drone units which monitor the area for moving vehicles and those who may attempt to leave on foot.
Russian forces have been advancing on Myrnohrad since late October.
Video from a Ukrainian unit in Myrnohad, posted on 29 October, shows a Russian vehicle attempting to enter the town from the northeast. The tank is attacked and soldiers attempting to enter on foot are targeted.
Video posted on 3 November shows Russian forces on the ground in the south of the town.
By 8 November, Russian strikes begin to pummel the northeast of Myrnohrad, the location of many of the town’s high-rise buildings, at that time, held by Ukrainian forces.
George Barros, Russia Team & Geospatial Intelligence Team Lead at ISW, told Sky News that Russian strategy in Pokrovsk has been to erode Ukrainian logistical capacity using drones and artillery over the course of several months.
“After denying supply lines and degrading the frontline forces by essentially cutting them off from behind and starving them out in their positions, then the Russians move forward with their infantry and frontal assaults,” Barros explained.
Capture the flag
For a brief period, it looked as though Russian forces had captured Myrnohrad.
Videos posted on 13 November appeared to show a Russian flag flying over the Myrnohrad mine.
However, video posted the following day showed a Ukrainian drone shooting it down.
Both Russian and Ukrainian forces continue to fight for control of Myrnohrad, with videos posted on the 19 and 20 November showing Russian airstrikes on Ukrainian positions in the town, and Ukrainian drone strikes targeting Russian forces on foot.
While the exact numbers of Russian and Ukrainian forces in the area remains unclear, reports indicate that three key Russian units are active in Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, and are advancing on the towns from the north and south.
A number of Ukrainian units remain inside the towns, including the 145th Assault regiment and the 32nd, 35th, 38th and 155th Brigades. Reports indicate that more Ukrainian units have been moved into surrounding areas to hold the withdrawal corridor open.
Sky News reached out to the Ukrainian brigades still in Myrnohrad, but they declined to comment, citing military regulations.
Strategic significance
Natia Seskuria, associate international security fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), explained that the area is important for the Ukrainians to keep and the Russians to take because of its strategic position.
“Situated at a major road and rail intersection in Donetsk Oblast, Pokrovsk has functioned as a central artery for moving troops, equipment, and supplies to Ukrainian units deployed along the surrounding front.”
Russia “would gain a platform to redirect its offensive efforts toward Ukraine’s principal defensive urban centres… including Kramatorsk and Slovyansk,” Seskuria said.
Read more:
Analysis – Ukraine and its allies are in a perilous moment
Analysis: Europe scrambles at G20 over Ukraine peace plane
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Ukrainian and Russian soldiers in Pokrovsk have fought intensely and at close quarters over the last month.
In late October US-made Black Hawk helicopters containing specialist troops directed by Ukrainian military intelligence entered Pokrovsk to try to keep the town.
But as Russian troops advance, Myrnohrad is becoming the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the area.
Uncertain future
At least up until 12 November, there were still civilians living in Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, despite strikes on buildings in both cities.
Residents sit in an armoured vehicle as Ukrainian police officers evacuate them from Pokrovske on 11 November. Source: Reuters
A post made on that day by the Donetsk state regional administration estimated 1,200 people remain living in Pokrovsk and 900 in Myrnohrad.
Evacuation is only possible with the help of the military or police, and it is not clear how many have evacuated in the 11 days since.
Barros of ISW says gaining Pokrovsk would increase Russia’s leverage at the negotiating table.
“If the Russians can successfully convince enough international leaders that, okay, the Russians took Pokrovsk, they’re going to take the next thing, and they’re going take the thing, so now let’s negotiate, then that is a strategic victory for the Russians.”
Production by Michelle Inez Simon, Visual Investigations Producer.
The Data x Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
Torrential rain, flooding and landslides has left more than 100 people dead or missing in Vietnam.
Rainfall has exceeded 74.8in (1.9 metres) in some parts of central Vietnam over the past week.
The region is a major coffee production belt and home to popular beaches, but it is also prone to storms and floods.
Fatalities have been reported in Dak Lak province and the neighbouring Khanh Hoa province.
Parts of Quy Nhon has been under several feet of water. Pic: picture-alliance/dpa/AP
Footage has been released by local police of a dramatic rescue, involving a drone which airlifted a stranded man to safety from an island in the middle of the Serepok River, Dak Lak province.
The government estimates the flooding has cost the economy around 8.98 trillion dong (£260m).
More than 235,000 houses were flooded and nearly 80,000 hectares of crops were damaged, Vietnam’s disaster agency said.
On Thursday, VietnamNet newspaper said that a suspension bridge on Da Nhim River in Lam Dong province had been swept away.
Video footage posted online showed the bridge being swallowed by the river in just a few seconds.
Naval forces have been deployed to help stranded citizens in Khanh Hoa, the Vietnam News Agency reported, adding that floodwaters had reached record highs in many areas.
Photos shared in state media reports showed residents, including children, sitting on the roofs of flooded houses in Khanh Hoa, Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces.
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A seven-year-old girl was rescued late on Wednesday in Da Lat, the capital of Lam Dong province, after being buried by a landslide, the Nhan Dan newspaper reported.
The landslide, triggered by heavy rain, knocked down and buried part of the house where the girl was staying.
She was pulled out after an hour and a half and was taken to hospital with a broken leg, according to the report.
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