On February 16th, 2024, Political rival to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalny, died of poisoning in an arctic prison.  Navalny was being kept in the IK-3 penal colony north of the Arctic Circle.  Navalny was arrested for accusing Putin of being the culprit of his early poisoning attempts.  He was arrested immediately after returning to Russia in 2021.  Since his death, hundreds have been arrested for attending memorials in his name.

In 2021, when Navalny was arrested, Biden publicly warned of devastating consequences for Russia if Navalny were to die in prison.  According to a CNN article, “The Biden administration imposed a fresh slate of sanctions on more than 500 targets on Friday in response to the death of Russian opposition figure and outspoken Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny…”  As of February 22nd, 2024, Navalny’s mother says that after relentlessly asking for Vladmir Putin to let her see the dead body of her son, she was shown his corpse in a mortuary on February 21st.  According to another CNN article, Navalny’s mother recorded a video to the Russian government on February 19 in which she said, ““I’m recording this video because they started threatening me. Looking into my eyes they say that if I don’t agree to a secret funeral they will do something with my son’s body…”

According to another CNN article, Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said, “An investigator called Alexey’s mother an hour ago and gave her an ultimatum. Either she agrees to a secret funeral without a public farewell within 3 hours, or Alexey will be buried in the colony…”