Alexei Navalny, Russia's most prominent political opposition figure, died this past week in a remote Russian prison where he was serving out a lengthy prison sentence for charges including extremism, which were widely seen as punishment for his years of criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin. His death brings renewed scrutiny to the fate of government dissenters in Russia.

"We don’t know every detail about the circumstances of his death today, but it is 100 percent fair to say that Alexei Navalny was killed by Vladimir Putin and the Russian state," Brian Taylor, professor of political science and director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, tells WABC (interview starts at 11:20). 

In the Forbes article "Putin Unlikely To Stop In Russia And Ukraine," Taylor says, "When Navalny returned to Russia in 2021, it was Putin and his team who locked him away in harsh prison conditions, much of which he spent in solitary confinement. Regardless of what happened on the day of his death (February 16), Navalny would be alive today without Putin’s determination to destroy him. Putin rightly perceived Navalny as a major threat and likely hated him for Navalny’s temerity to reveal to the world Putin’s immense corruption and his personal secrets."