Outspoken former Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny passed away in prison on the 16th of February 2024, drawing condemnation from US President Joe Biden who boldly claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin had him executed, even going so far as to call Putin a “thug”. This will undoubtedly fracture the already fragile relationship Russia holds with the United States.

The domestic implications of Navalny’s death remains to be seen, however, diplomatic relations between Russia and the West will certainly be impacted as a result of this news. Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan note “in a way, Navalny’s death marks the culmination of years of efforts by the Russian state to eliminate all sources of opposition. For more than two decades, Putin has made political assassination an essential part of the Kremlin’s toolkit. It is a method he has used against troublemakers such as the journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the whistleblower Alexander Litvinenko. He has used it against his political opponents Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down close to the Kremlin in 2015, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who has been poisoned twice and is now in prison. Navalny, who had survived previous assassination attempts, was an even greater target. But even now, the forces that Navalny unleashed are unlikely to go away. His death is a terrible blow to anti-Putin Russians.” (Soldatov.Borogan.2024). It is unlikely the investigation into Navalny’s death will deem his passing as a homicide, however it marks a disturbing pattern of Russian critics of the Kremlin ending up deceased.

International condemnation of Navalny’s death was widespread as “President Joe Biden on Friday announced more than 500 new sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine and the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny last week in prison — the largest tranche since the conflict began, the administration said … “They will ensure Putin pays an even steeper price for his aggression abroad and repression at home," Biden said in a statement about the sanctions.”(Shabad.Korade) Russia-United States relations will suffer further fractures amidst the newly imposed U.S. sanctions. President Biden’s rhetoric seems to affirm tensions between the two nations are at their highest since the height of the Cold War.