Kamala Harris has said the apparent death of the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is a "further sign of Putin's brutality."
Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service announced on Friday that Navalny had died in a prison inside the Arctic Circle at the age of 47.
The vice president told attendees at the Munich Security Conference that the U.S. is "working to confirm" the "terrible news."
"My prayers are with his family," Harris said. "Whatever story they tell, let us be clear: Russia is responsible. And we will have more to say on this later."
The prison service said in a statement that Navalny felt unwell after a walk, "lost consciousness almost immediately," and died shortly afterwards.
"Medical workers from the institution immediately arrived and an emergency medical team was called," the statement said. "All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, which did not yield positive results. Ambulance doctors stated the death of the convict."
Earlier on Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Navalny's death would, if confirmed, speak to the Kremlin's vulnerability.
"His death in a Russian prison and the fixation and fear of one man only underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built. Russia is responsible for this," Blinken said.
"We'll be talking to the many other countries concerned about Alexei Navalny, especially if these reports bear out to be true."
The Biden administration and its allies have long championed the cause of Navalny, who for decades has been one of the most prominent Russian critics of Putin. He faced repeated prosecutions and imprisonment for his work, and in 2020 was the victim of an assassination attempt.
Navalny was arrested and imprisoned following his return to Russia in 2021, after having spent several months recuperating in Germany from the 2020 attack.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Friday that Putin had been informed of Navalny's death.
He added that prison authorities would conduct a routine investigation into the incident, and that doctors should determine the cause of death.
2/16/23 9:10 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include additional context.
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David Brennan is Newsweek's Diplomatic Correspondent covering world politics and conflicts from London with a focus on NATO, the European ... Read more
