In the weeks preceding Alexey Navalny's reported death on Friday, concerns for his welfare intensified after he was taken to a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle.
The timing of his death is significant "because it shows us something about how (Russian President) Vladimir Putin feels at this particular time," according to CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.
"Navalny was pretty much as far out of the way as you could put him," he told CNN's This Morning on Friday. "He was out, it seems, of the political arena. He never really got a foothold in the electoral process ... yet still, Vladimir Putin felt a degree of threat."
It came shortly before Russia's presidential election, scheduled to take place on March 17, where Putin is widely expected to win a fifth term in a move that would see him retain power until at least 2030.
European leaders blame Putin: The exact circumstances of Navalny's death are unknown, but "we are hearing leading European politicians pointing the finger at the Kremlin," added Paton Walsh. A growing chorus of European leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics and Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre have already cast blame on Moscow.
"Ultimately, you could not have a more sore reminder of the urgency of the danger that Vladimir Putin places to Europe with the Ukraine war entering into its third year, and to his own population in that autocratic environment," Paton Walsh said.