The Kremlin has never been able to completely silence Navalny.

Although Kremlin authorities have worked tirelessly for years to silence Aleksei A. Navalny, they have never fully succeeded, even by imprisoning him in one of the harshest penal colonies above the Arctic Circle.

Using both his reputation as the most respected, most viable leader of the oft-beleaguered opposition movement – ​​and his training as a lawyer with a shrewd understanding of the loopholes in the system – Mr Navalny always found ways to be heard.

From prison, he denounced the war in Ukraine and continued to highlight the enormous wealth of senior government officials. In his latest effort, he supported the idea that during the presidential elections from March 15 to 17, all Russians who oppose the war should protest silently by appearing at polling stations across Russia at exactly noon.

“While in prison, Aleksei Navalny remained the moral and de facto leader of the opposition to Putin,” said Fyodor Krasheninnikov, a Russian political commentator based in Brussels. “This certainly bothered the authorities.”

While in prison, Mr. Navalny used various methods to communicate with the outside world. Banned from seeing his immediate family members, he spoke to his lawyers and some of what he said invariably ended up on X, formerly Twitter, and other social media apps.

For example, as of early 2023, he had a 15-point post at the top of his head profile in X in which he attacks President Vladimir V. Putin for the war in Ukraine and predicts defeat. Russia criminalized such comments early in the war, but Mr. Navalny, who had already been sentenced to at least 20 years in prison, had nothing to lose.

“The real reasons for this war are the political and economic problems within Russia, Putin's desire to stay in power at all costs, and his obsession with his own historical legacy,” the post said. “He wants to go down in history as 'the conqueror tsar' and 'the collector of land'.” It attracted more than 3.3 million views.

Authorities first tried to hinder communication by placing an opaque barrier in the visiting room so that he and his lawyers could not see the written messages. When that failed, his three lawyers were arrested last year and accused of participating in an extremist organization. Both his organization, Foundation for Fighting Corruption, and his extensive network of regional political offices were declared extremist organizations in 2021. The three accused lawyers are currently in pre-trial detention.

Imprisoned under increasingly harsh conditions, often in solitary confinement, Mr Navalny repeatedly filed lawsuits against authorities for violations of prison rules. That forced authorities to hold open hearings, and Mr. Navalny used his appearance at a prison court to both denounce his treatment and comment on political issues.

He sued because he had not been given paper and pen. He sued over the ten-minute limit imposed on him to eat, saying that since he was given boiling water, he could not drink it during that time.

Last August, prison authorities tried to punish him for his use of slang, saying he was contributing to a “criminal environment.” But Mr. Navalny, who demanded that prison authorities provide him with a list of banned words, sued again, arguing that senior Kremlin officials continually used similar words. The concept of a “criminal environment” in Russia was broad and included “people in suit jackets,” he said.

His organization, which went into exile in Lithuania before Russia invaded Ukraine, continued its anti-corruption investigations and YouTube news. channelwhich also put him in the spotlight.

Evgenia Albats, a renowned Russian journalist currently at Harvard University, said Mr Navalny was maintaining his appeal from prison. (She underlined that she was still waiting for confirmation of his death from his lawyers because the government may have been “trying to cover him up.”)

“He took every opportunity to speak out and people listened to him, people looked forward to the news from the penal colony,” she said. “His main message was: 'I'm not afraid, and you don't have to be afraid.'”

Milana Mazaeva reporting contributed.