ALEXEI Navalny’s death has been confirmed as officials say “his body is with investigators”.

It comes after people have made claims that Navalny was actually killed on the direct orders of Putin.

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He died at 14:17 local time on February 16, according to a document given to Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila.

Prison authorities in Russia said Navalny fell unconscious and died after a walk at the feared “Polar Wolf” jail where he was serving a three-decade sentence.

Navalny, Putin’s leading domestic critic in Russia, had bravely challenged the tyrant’s rule and his horrific war in Ukraine.

Many of his supporters had fears that he would be assassinated while behind bars for his strong support from the public outside of prison.

Many are suspicious by the circumstances surrounding his death after he was seen laughing and joking with a judge on a video call Thursday.

His family also said he was in good health when they visited him in jail just three days before his death.

He had been “cheerful and healthy” in the days before his death.

Respected Russian political analyst Ekaterina Shulman told Bild in Russian: “We don’t have too many reasons to suspect a natural death.”

“We see an intentional murder in front of our eyes, not something else,” she said.

“Not even death from hard conditions (in the Arctic jail).”

People in Russia have said he could have potentially been drugged or poisoned inside the colony run by Colonel Kalinin.

Former FSB colonel Gennady Gudkov, 67, an opposition politician like Navalny, backed these theories.

He said: “He was kept… in torture conditions.

“Either his organism did not overcome such torture (or) they might have given some medication that causes heart failure, they could have given a poison.

“We will only learn the truth when Putin is gone. The fact that they killed him is beyond any doubt.”

His body is now with investigators as they look for the cause of death.