President Vladimir Putin faces no real threat in the 2024 Russian elections. Over the past couple of decades, a string of his critics have died – most recently imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
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.
As polling day in Russia approaches, Sky News asks: Who are the people who have dared speak out against Mr Putin or defy the Kremlin, and where are they now?
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
One person has died and others have been injured during severe turbulence on a plane from London to Singapore – with passengers saying people were “launched into the ceiling”.
Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 from Heathrow was forced to make an emergency landing in Bangkok.
“We can confirm that there are injuries and one fatality on board the Boeing 777-300ER. There were a total of 211 passengers and 18 crew on board,” a statement said.
“Singapore Airlines offers its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased.”
The aircraft took off at 10.38pm UK time on Monday but had to divert to the Thai capital, landing at 3.45pm local time on Tuesday (9.45am UK time).
It was cruising at 37,000ft (11,280m) before dropping 6,000ft (1,830m) in around three minutes, according to flight tracking data.
Passenger Dzafran Azmir, 28, told Reuters news agency: “Suddenly the aircraft starts tilting up and there was shaking so I started bracing for what was happening, and very suddenly there was a very dramatic drop so everyone seated and not wearing seatbelt was launched immediately into the ceiling.”
He added: “Some people hit their heads on the baggage cabins overhead and dented it, they hit the places where lights and masks are and broke straight through it.”
Social media video showed ambulances lined up at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport.
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Sky’s Asia correspondent Cordelia Lynch, at the airport, said it’s believed as many as 30 people were injured – with local media reporting two people may have died.
“There’s some suggestion the flight hit an air pocket before it had to make this emergency landing,” she said.
“There are some images circulating on social media that show parts of the plane inside and a lot of scattered debris.”
Singapore Airlines said it was working with Thai authorities “to provide the necessary medical assistance” and sending a team to Bangkok to provide extra help.
“Our priority is to provide all possible assistance to all passengers and crew on board the aircraft”, it added.
Singapore is considered a standard-setter for the aviation industry and consistently tops airline awards.
Turbulence-related injuries are the most common type on board passenger planes, according to a 2021 study by the US National Transportation Safety Board.
It found it was responsible for more than a third of accidents between 2009 and 2018, but no aircraft damage.
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There are mechanisms to protect the regime in events like this and the Revolutionary Guard, which was founded in 1979 precisely for that purpose, will be a major player in what comes next.
In the immediate term, vice-president Mohammed Mokhber will assume control and elections will be held within 50 days.
Mokhber isn’t as close to the supreme leader as Raisi was, and won’t enjoy his standing, but he has run much of Khamenei’s finances for years and is credited with helping Iran evade some of the many sanctions levied on it.
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Drone footage of helicopter crash site
Raisi’s successor will most likely be the chosen candidate of the supreme leader and certainly another ultra-conservative hardliner – a shift back to the moderates is highly unlikely.
Likewise, we shouldn’t expect any significant change in Iran’s foreign activities or involvement with the war in Gaza. It will be business as usual, as much as possible.
However, after years of anti-government demonstrations following the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022, this might be a moment for the protest movement to rise up and take to the streets again.
Iranian protesters have expressed “joy” over the death of President Ebrahim Raisi who was dubbed the “Butcher of Tehran”.
Speaking to Sky News’ The World With Yalda Hakim, three Iranians spoke on the condition of anonymity over fears of being tracked down by the country’s regime.
A protest leader – who is currently in hiding – suggested Sunday’s crash, that also killed Iran’s foreign minister, was “pre-planned”.
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Rescuers reach helicopter crash site
“We may not be across everything, but it’s been a known fact for a long time that Raisi was a serious contender to replace the Supreme Leader Khamenei, and perhaps some didn’t want that to happen.
“But all in all, this was very good news.
“All I can say is that the only thing that has made me truly happy over the past five years has been the news of Raisi’s death.”
Mr Raisi’s time in charge included major protests over Mahsa Amini – the woman who died after she was arrested for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.
The US said Mr Raisi had “blood on his hands” as the former hardline cleric was “a brutal participant in the repression of the Iranian people for nearly four decades”.
From the voices speaking out on The World with Yalda Hakim from inside Iran there was a sense of celebration on the eve of the funeral of their dead president but also a sense of realism.
One dead president the fall of a regime does not make. That is the bitter truth for those brave Iranians speaking out and the millions of Iranians they represent. They detest a man who presided over a brutal crackdown on protests that saw hundreds killed on the streets, and thousands incarcerated, tortured, raped or killed after their arbitrary arrest.
But there are reasons for Iranians to find some hope in the news of the president’s death.
Analysts have compared the Iranian theocratic Islamic regime to the Soviet Union in its dying days.
It is ideologically bankrupt. Its people do not believe in what it stands for anymore. It is morally bankrupt too, after the brutal repression that crushed the Women, Life and Freedom protests. But it remains powerful, with many people on its payroll and it is hard to predict how or when it falls.
Iran’s people want one thing though, and its government the opposite, and that ultimately is impossible to sustain.
Raisi had a unique skill set. He was both a zealous idealogue and an ex-judge. A man who understood how both Iran’s judiciary and presidency works. He combined a passionate belief in the Iranian revolution with an expertise in how its regime operated.
It has been said many times in the last 24 hours that Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, will find another hardliner to replace him. There are plenty more where he came from.
But no one with quite his skills and expertise. That may not be important immediately but at the moment of greatest danger in the not so distant future when Khamenei dies, it could make all the difference.
With no anointed successor, the supreme leader’s passing could usher in a period of instability and weakness for the regime. Raisi was seen as a potential successor but also a powerful stabilising force as president in that perilous hiatus, someone who could hold the ring while the new order is established and power struggles fought out.
Raisi’s death may well not mean immediate change for Iran but it could ultimately hasten its end.
A housewife, who was beaten up for taking parting in the “Woman, Life, Protest” movements, said: “The public hatred towards this regime is not a secret to anyone.
“Raisi’s death proved that the pain that this inflicted on our people will one day hit them back.
“My personal reaction to the death of Raisi… I was very happy.
“I’m not upset at all. Even though I never wish death on anyone, but this man, not only did he not do anything for our nation, but he ordered the death of countless young innocent people.”
Following news of Mr Raisi’s death, US State department spokesperson Matt Miller said the Iranian president “was involved in numerous horrific human rights abuses, including playing a key role in the extra judicial killing of thousands of political prisoners in 1988”.
“Some of the worst human rights abuses occurred during his tenure as president, especially the human rights abuses against the women and girls of Iran,” he added.
The US approach to Iran “will not change” because of Mr Raisi’s death, Mr Miller said.