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.
World
Brutal murder on ‘date’ exposes robbery gang suspected of targeting dozens of women in South Africa
Thirty-year-old Olorato Mongale made sure to take all the measures necessary for a safe first date in South Africa’s biggest city, Johannesburg.
She had agreed to meet ‘John’ in the daytime. She sent her friends her phone location after leaving her house and promptly texted them “on the road” at 2.47pm.
They replied “enjoy!”, hoping she would find love.
An hour later, their friend had gone silent and her phone location was showing up in dangerous areas of the city.
A search party of seven friends set off to trace Olorato’s digital footsteps.
It’s believed Olorato’s killers were part of a gang robbing young women at gunpoint
“It didn’t make sense. Where is she? Why is she missing?” says Karabo Mokoena, as we drove to the locations involved in their search.
“Every place we went to looked dodgier and dodgier. It made me panic – I was very scared.”
After finding her bag on a pile of bricks off the side of a main road, they filed a missing person report at a police station.
“I thought there was no way we were not going to find her. We did end up finding her but not in the way we would have hoped,” says Karabo.
Olorato’s body had been dumped at the dirt entrance of a random house less than 100m from where her friends were searching into the night.
Her face was swollen and her eyes black-blue from violent impact. Her top was ripped open to expose her breasts.
Police told Sky News that her post-mortem showed signs of blunt force trauma. She was likely beaten to death.
Olorato’s body was dumped outside this gate – she was likely beaten to death
“It was like I was dreaming, seeing her body like that with those bruises and blood everywhere,” says Olorato’s mother, Keabetswe Poppy Mongale, describing the moment she had to identify her only child at the morgue.
“I don’t think what I saw will ever go away,” she adds.
“It was very painful. I don’t wish that on any parent because my beautiful little girl looked different because someone chose to do that to her.”
Olorato’s mother says the image of her daughter in the morgue will never go away
CCTV from the driveway of Olorato’s building shows the last time she was seen alive, leaving her home to meet ‘John’.
In the video, she walks towards a white Volkswagen Polo and hesitates as she reaches the left back door. John had come with a friend.
Four days after Olorato was killed, police found the car in a different province with traces of her blood splattered across the back seat.
CCTV showed Olorato walking to a car for what she thought was a date
One suspect was shot dead but the second man is still on the run
Philangenkosi Sibongokuhle Makanya – ‘John’ – was shot dead by police in KwaZulu-Natal shortly after they found the vehicle.
The second man in the car, Bongani Mthimkhulu, is still on the run.
The two men have since been identified as part of a dangerous criminal syndicate that lure young women out on dates and rob them at gunpoint.
“Within the four days, the investigating officers received 94 calls from women who were raising concerns and identifying the suspects as those they once met,” South African Police Service deputy national commissioner Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili told Sky News.
“It was unfortunate about Olorato, but others were released after being robbed.”
Olorato’s friends say she ‘ticked all the boxes when it came to being careful’
A 24-year-old student who survived an armed robbery at the hands of Olorato’s suspected killers says she was happy to see Philangenkosi killed but she’s still scared for her life.
“As women, we are not even safe anymore – we can’t even walk freely,” she says.
“The moment you leave your house you wonder if you will make it back alive. I don’t feel comfortable walking around the street. I leave the house and then turn back.
“Even when I’m home, I still don’t feel safe and always want to keep myself locked indoors,” she says with a shaky voice – choosing to remain anonymous.
After meeting other victims of the syndicate, she was shocked to hear details of almost identical abductions.
“This other girl was surprised because we went through the exact same situation. They also approached her with the same tactic – let me take you out to lunch to get to know you – only for her to be robbed.”
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
South Africa has one of the highest femicide rates in the world – an average 15 women are killed a day, many by their intimate partners.
According to police statistics, more than 5,500 women were murdered in South Africa last year. An increase of 33.8% compared with the previous year.
“South Africa has six times the average rate of femicide – hundreds of women have already been killed since Olorato’s murder,” says Cameron Kasambala from Women for Change.
The advocacy group raises awareness of rising cases of femicide and gender-based violence across South Africa.
Campaigner Cameron Kasambala says many femicide cases take a long time to be resolved
In the hours after her murder, Olorato’s friends contacted Women for Change to share her missing poster after receiving little immediate help from the local police station.
“I think her friends were the real heroes in that moment,” says Cameron.
“Two police stations that were 10 minutes apart, one finds a body and one has a missing case, don’t make a connection for hours. It’s not the most reassuring police work. And if the friends had not come forward, how long would it have taken?
“Unfortunately, Olorato’s case is an exception. Most cases are not handled that quickly.”
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Olorato’s friends say she would be ‘proud to know that her name has not gone in vain’
Olorato’s friends are still contending with the violence of her death – what it means for their daily lives and how they navigate their safety as women in South Africa.
“It is difficult to process and difficult to believe. This is somebody who ticked all the boxes when it came to being careful – being meticulous, checking her surroundings and leaving clues,” says Olorato’s friend, Koketso Sejosengoe.
“It shows it can happen to anybody no matter how safe you are. It is happening to the average girl. They are being targeted. These men know what they are doing and who they are looking for.”
“In the purest sense, Olorato wanted women to be safe and wanted women to be protected,” adds Koketso.
“I think she would be very proud to know that her name has not gone in vain and that her death is standing for something – that there will be change that comes with this.”
Major heatwaves across southern Europe have left Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece in sweltering conditions of more than 40C (104F).
Two-thirds of Portugal was on high alert for extreme heat and risk of wildfires on Sunday, with temperatures in Lisbon expected to exceed 42C (107F).
In parts of southern Spain, temperatures are well above average, with 42C also expected in Seville and other cities.
The country’s meteorological service says June is likely to be the hottest Spain has experienced since records began.
In several Italian regions, including Lazio, Tuscany, Calabria, Puglia, and Umbria, outdoor work was banned during peak hours of sun on Sunday, with trade unions pushing for the measures to be extended and rolled out nationwide.
Twenty-one out of 27 cities were under the highest possible heat alert, including Rome, Milan, and Naples.
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Greece has already been plagued by wildfires this summer, with one breaking out south of Athens on Thursday, and several on the island of Chios last Sunday.
Near Athens, authorities deployed 130 firefighters, 12 helicopters, and 12 planes, with 40 people evacuated from the highest-risk areas.
A woman was arrested on suspicion of unintentional arson after wildfires spread across brush and pastureland for three days on Chios.
Flames rise above Thymari, near Athens, after wildfires broke out on Friday. Pic: Reuters
Tourists battle scorching temperatures at the Parthenon in Greece on Friday. Pic: Reuters
Scientists link increasing frequencies of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, wildfires, and storms to climate change.
In France and Germany, at least three people died amid stormy conditions.
A ridge of high pressure above central and western Europe is driving the scorching conditions, says Sky News meteorologist Chris England.
Hotter-than-normal sea temperatures, dry land, and surface winds are also partly to blame, he added.
Tourists in Retiro Park in Madrid on Saturday. Pic: AP
Locals fan themselves in Lisbon on Saturday. Pic: AP
UK heatwave also likely
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UK heatwaves explained
The UK is halfway through a four-day amber heat health alert, with temperatures expected to peak in the mid-30s (86F) on Tuesday.
Heat health alerts are not public weather warnings – but are instead designed to prepare health and social care bodies for the potential impact on their infrastructure and vulnerable groups.
Heatwave thresholds are likely to be met on Monday and Tuesday, which vary between 28C (82F) in the south of England and 25C (77F) across the rest of the country.
A British-Israeli soldier has been killed while fighting in Gaza, Israeli media reports said.
He was named locally as Sergeant Yisrael Natan Rosenfeld, 20, from the city of Ra’anana.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it is “looking into reports that an IDF soldier who died in combat in Gaza is a British national”.
The IDF soldier, who served in the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion, was killed by an explosive device on Sunday, the Times of Israel reported.
The paper said Mr Rosenfeld moved to Israel from London with his family 11 years ago.
More than 860 Israeli soldiers have been killed since Israel’s war against Hamas began on 7 October 2023, more than 400 of them during the fighting in Gaza.
The war began when the militant group launched an attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has devastated the enclave and killed more than 56,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says more than half of the dead are women and children.
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It came as Donald Trump called for progress in ceasefire talks in the war between Israel and Hamas.
“MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!” the US president wrote on social media on Sunday.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
On Friday Mr Trump raised expectations by claiming there could be an agreement within the next week.
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