Russian state media has largely avoided giving airtime to the news of Kremlin foe Alexei Navalnys death in an Arctic prison.While Navalnys death on Friday dominated global headlines, Russian state television limited its coverage to brief news segments or airing statements that Moscow did not benefit from Navalnys death and speculation about its timing.Heres an overview of the coverage surrounding Navalny and his death:Channel OneChannel One like Rossiya 1 aired the news about Navalnys death nearly one hour after it was reported by Russias prison service, the BBC said.During its evening news bulletin, a Channel One news presenter reported that Navalny felt unwell after a walk and lost consciousness, adding that doctors immediately came to the rescue and that all necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, but it was not possible to save him.The channel did not provide any information about Navalny's career as an opposition politician or the reasons for his imprisonment.Rossiya 24During Dmitry Kiselyov's Sunday evening program Vesti Nedeli (Weekly News), Navalnys death was briefly mentioned during a segment about the Munich Security conference.Just in time for the start of the conference, news arrived from the Far North of Russia, a correspondent said, referring to the Munich Security Conference where Navalnys widow, Yulia Navalnaya, spoke shortly after his death was announced.While raising questions about the presence of Navalnya, who was not included in the list of conference participants, the correspondent also said that Russia does not benefit from the politicians death.Without waiting for the investigation results, she blamed the Russian authorities for what happened, and the rest did the same thing, without even thinking for a second about the question why does Russia need this? Especially on the opening day of the Munich conference, the correspondent said.What could be better for whipping up accusatory pathos than the sudden death of the main critic of the Kremlin, as the deceased was called in the European press? he added.Rossiya 1While pro-Kremlin anchor Vladimir Solovyov also linked the timing of Navalnys death to the Munich Security Conference, the editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-funded broadcaster RT, Margarita Simonyan, took aim at his widow.Two hours after the news of her husbands death, the wife emerged wearing makeupnot even the mascara had run...
[Shes] smiling and speaking at the press conference, Simonyan said on air.For me, this suggests that at least this woman did not love her husband very much, but press conferences with the authorities and everything connected with it [she loves] very much," Simonyan added.NTVNikolai Rybakov, chairman of the liberal Yabloko party, expressed his condolences to Navalnys family on air, adding that he hoped his death ensures that political prisoners will be released.I can't help but express my condolences, Rybakov said during a talk show, but he was quickly interrupted by the programs host.