Extract from ABC News
Alexei Navalny's decades-long crusade for a more democratic Russia saw him cast as President Vladimir Putin's archenemy, but his fight appears to have ended with an early death in prison.
The 47-year-old will be remembered as an anti-corruption campaigner, an aspiring presidential candidate, political prisoner and one of the Kremlin's most vocal critics.
His suspicious death brings his activism to an end, but his supporters believe his work influenced many in his home country and abroad.
"[The Kremlin] have killed Navalny, the man, but have done nothing to kill Navalny the idea," said Dr Rasmus Nilsson, from University College London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies.
"Throughout most of his career he stood up for citizen power, for a responsible state, and for the individual's right to speak freely against any abuses of power.
"He was a brave man … and he should be remembered for that."
He campaigned for the right to protest in an increasingly-oppressive Russia, survived a serious poisoning attempt and was eventually sentenced to decades in prison on a variety of charges including "terrorism" and "extremism".
His death comes just weeks out from Russia's presidential elections, where Vladimir Putin will inevitably take another term, facing almost no opposition.
"It tells us that [the Kremlin] still felt he could be a threat, or the image of him could be a threat, even from behind bars in an isolated prison camp," Dr Nilsson said.
Anna Kovalevskaya, 26, said to many younger Russians, Mr Navalny represented possibility and hope, even though there was no way he would be elected while Putin was around.
"His legacy is that he showed a whole generation of Russians to be believe in democracy, to believe in kindness, to walk away from violence, to seek the truth," Ms Kovalevskaya told ABC News.
When she was a high-school student, she volunteered for Mr Navalny's team, and said she saw him as a "superman-like" figure.
"He came to my small town in Russia, and he was so kind and smiling, he didn't seem phased there were police outside … he said as long as we are alive, we are good, and we are fighting.
"My fear is that now there is nothing, no-one in Russia, who can fill his place."
A political rival to the end
At the time of his death he was serving a cumulative sentence of around 30 years. But even while locked up, he was still often described as Putin's most prominent rival.
On Friday, Russian state media reported that he had died in an isolated penal colony in the Arctic Circle.
Mr Navalny "felt unwell" after taking a walk on Friday and had lost consciousness, a statement from the Russian prison service said.
Just a day earlier he was seen in a video in seemingly good spirits, joking with officials at a court hearing.
His closest associates and family claim they were not informed of his death or the circumstances prior to it being announced publicly.
Immediately, world leaders accused the Kremlin of a political killing.
US President Joe Biden told the world: "Make no mistake, Vladimir Putin is responsible."
"Whether he died at from natural causes or from the other extreme measure, like someone machine gunning him against the wall … this [Russian] regime killed him," said Dr Nillson.
"My first reaction was that this is a sign of regime weakness. I think you can quite often understand the Russian regime as a mobster family or mobster group.
"We have seen, deaths, imprisonment, disappearances and so on of members of the opposition pretty much throughout Putin's reign."
Mr Navalny had been increasingly cut off from his family and associates while in prison and had known many people wanted him dead.
He almost died in 2020 when he was poisoned with the Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.
He was medically evacuated to Berlin and discharged a month later, but still returned to Russia where he was detained shortly after.
He claimed there had been several other attempts on his life, and, in a 2022 documentary, was asked what he would tell the world in the event of his death.
"Don't give up — if this happens, it means that we are unusually strong at this moment," he said.
"We need to use this strength, not give up, remember that we are a huge force."
Decades-long fight for a free Russia
Mr Navalny first stepped into the political world in the early 2000s, a recent law graduate from Moscow's Friendship of the Peoples University.
He was born in 1976, raised in a village south-west of Moscow, to a father of Ukrainian heritage, and grew up speaking both Russian and Ukrainian.
He has been a staunch opponent of war in Ukraine and campaigned for an end to the 2022 full-scale invasion from behind bars.
Through the years, he was aligned with several different political parties and ran as a mayoral candidate in Moscow.
His use of the internet and social media made him popular amongst younger generations and saw him grow a large political following.
"He was very good with the internet; and he spoke our language … he was making TikToks that would go viral," said Ms Kovalevskaya.
He announced his intention to run as presidential candidate in the 2018 elections but was eventually barred from entering the race.
"He was kind of Western style politician who could joke, use humour, understood social media, made videos poking fun at Kremlin officials and shining a light on their corruption," said Luke Harding, a former Russia correspondent for the Guardian.
He was detained and imprisoned several times in his public life, and he previously spoke with regret about the impact it has had on his wife Yulia and their two children.
He was "the bravest Russian of the 21st century," said Mr Harding who met a younger Navalny several times while working in Russia.
Mr Harding was refused re-entry into Russia in 2011 despite living and working there as a journalist for years prior, one of the first expelled under Vladimir Putin's leadership.
"[Alexei Navalny] was remarkable. I mean, he is tall, he is charismatic, he is impressive, he is a great communicator."
"He was sketching schemes for me, corruption schemes on a whiteboard, and he was the president that Russia deserved but never got."
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