Navalny was Russia's highest-profile political prisoner. But there are more than 1,000 others

Just before Alexei Navalny's mother, Lyudmila, posted a video to social media on Tuesday pleading with Russian authorities to let her see her son's body, another clip began circulating from state media showing the arrest of the country's latest political prisoner.

A 33-year-old Russian-U.S. dual national, who has been identified as Ksenia Khavana, was seen in handcuffs with a hat pulled over her eyes as she was led out of an apartment building in Yekaterinburg, a city 800 kilometres east of Moscow.

Khavana has been accused of treason and could face up to 20 years in prison. Her crime? A group of Russian lawyers say the Los Angeles resident donated $50 US to the Ukrainian war effort.

Navalny, who was nearly fatally poisoned in 2020, died on Friday afternoon at a penal colony in Russia's Arctic. He was the country's most high-profile political prisoner, but according to the Russian human rights group OVD-Info, more than 1,000 people are currently imprisoned in Russia as a result of politically motivated prosecutions, including a political activist with ties to Canada.

WATCH | What Navalny's death means for opposition to Putin:

Some advocates think Western lawmakers should be doing more to free them.

"Some of our loudest voices are still in prison," said Jamison Firestone, a London-based lawyer who is a leading voice against Russian corruption. "I don't know what we can do … but would I trade political prisoners for murderers and internet hackers? Sure."

Possible prisoner exchange

U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, who was born in Canada and later served as a U.S. Marine, are both imprisoned in Russia on espionage charges. The U.S. has declared them both wrongfully detained.

Negotiations are underway to free them in a possible prisoner exchange that could involve the release of Russian Vadim Krasikov, who is jailed in Germany for the murder of a Chechen dissident in a Berlin park in 2019.

Firestone, who spoke with CBC News on Monday, thinks Western leaders should be trying to secure the release of more political prisoners — particularly Russian-British national Vladimir Kara-Murza, a journalist and political activist serving a 25-year sentence for treason.

"God forbid this happens to him," Firestone said, referring to Navalny's sudden and suspicious death last week.

Prison officials said Navalny, 47, collapsed shortly after returning from a walk on Friday.

"I have no idea what leverage anybody can bring to get [Kara-Murza] out of there, but that should be done first thing," said Firestone.

On Monday, British Conservative backbench MP Bob Seely urged his government to consider a prisoner swap for Kara-Murza, saying "if Putin can kill Navalny, he can kill Kara-Murza."

Seely's plea was flatly rejected by the U.K. government, which said it would continue to seek the release of Kara-Murza, but "would not countenance a policy of prisoners swap."

International advocate, Kremlin target 

Kara-Murza, 42, was granted honorary Canadian citizenship last year for the work he has done advocating for stricter sanctions against corrupt Russian officials.

The father of three was arrested and imprisoned while visiting Moscow in April 2022, a few hours after CNN broadcast an interview with him in which he said Russia was run by "a regime of murderers."

Like Navalny, Kara-Murza has survived being poisoned. He says the Kremlin tried to kill him in 2015 and 2017, which Russian officials deny.

He was also a close aide to opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in Moscow in 2015.

"Kara-Murza is the same kind of enemy to Vladimir Putin as Navalny," said Elena Lukyanova, a Russian lawyer now living in Riga, Latvia. "But on the international stage."

She says Navalny, who ran for mayor of Moscow and tried to run for the presidency in 2018, had a large following inside Russia. Kara-Murza, who was educated at Cambridge in England, isn't as well-known domestically. Instead, he developed close relationships with Western politicians, including U.S. senator John McCain. Kara-Murza even served as a pallbearer at McCain's funeral.

"All his work and international appearances…. that is why he received a longer prison sentence than Navalny," said Lukyanova, who said she warned Kara-Murza he would likely be arrested if he returned to Russia.

Fragile health

She and Kara-Murza's family are concerned about the state of his health in prison. He suffers from a serious nerve disorder called polyneuropathy, which his lawyers say arose as a result of being poisoned.

While pictures taken in court show him smiling in the prisoner's box, it is clear he has lost a substantial amount of weight.

At the end of January, when he was moved from a prison in Siberia and his whereabouts were unknown, British Foreign Minister David Cameron called on Moscow to release more information. One day later, it was revealed in a letter Kara-Murza wrote to his lawyer that he had been moved to a new Siberian penal colony and placed in solitary confinement for four months.

CBC News attempted to write Kara-Murza in August 2023, but prison officials censored the letter and didn't give it to Kara-Murza. Instead, they only handed him blank pieces of paper with which to write a response.

In his reply, he expressed how happy he was to learn that he had been granted honorary Canadian citizenship.

His wife, Evgenia, is based in the U.S. and is also a strong opponent of the Kremlin. After Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, posted a video on Monday vowing to carry on her husband's work, Evgenia Kara-Murza wrote on X that Navalnaya was "walking through hell" with her head held high.

WATCH | Navalny's widow vows to keep fighting 'for a free Russia':

Evgenia Kara-Murza, who spoke to CBC News last spring, said she fears for her husband's health. During an interview with CNN on Friday, she revealed her husband last talked to his children just before New Year's. It was a 15-minute call, she said, and she stood there with a timer, because she wanted to make sure each child got five minutes to speak with their father.

"I believe the news about Alexei ... has affected every single family of political prisoners in Russia," she told CNN.

"We all know what kind of repressive methods are being used by the authorities on those who refuse to be silent."