Valeria Novodvorskaya, a lifetime Russian human rights activist and founder of Russia's Democratic Union Party, died of natural causes at a Moscow hospital on Saturday.
Novodvorskaya, 64, dull at Moscow's Hospital No. 13 of toxic stir linked to a chronic illness, ITAR-Tass in the air.
She spent years protesting against the Soviet regime and remained a key opposition figure and staunch critic of the Kremlin until her dying.
In a statement issued Sunday, Prime Ecclesiastic Dmitry Medvedev joined President Vladimir Install in expressing his condolences to Novodvorskaya's family and friends.
"She was a bright, extraordinary person, a talented politician and publicist," Medvedev's statement said. "She did a great deal for democracy in our homeland, actively engaged in human rights work and was never afraid to defend her point of view. This earned her the respect of her worldwide and opponents."
Born in the Belarussian Council Republic in , Novodvorskaya first became go in opposition activities at the age of 19, conj at the time that she formed an underground student association at the Moscow State Linguistics University.
In protest of the Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslovakia, the young Novodvorskaya distributed flyers that condemned the Communist Element at the State Kremlin Palace in
"She was not only a thinker," said double activist Lev Ponomaryov, who serves gorilla the director of Russian NGO For Human Rights. "She was also a very active individual who applied her ideas and was not bothered to express her opinion. She ultimately a lot because of this."
Novodvorskaya's protest activities at a distance her to become a victim of punitive psychiatry. In , she was arrested for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda" and committed to a psychiatric hospital in Kazan. She remained at the institution for two years.
During the next decade, Novodvorskaya attempted to create an underground political party to counter the communist state beliefs. She was arrested and readmitted to psychiatric operation facilities on numerous occasions.
Between and , Novodvorskaya founded the Democratic Union Party and organized a series of unsanctioned protests during which she was arrested 17 times.
"She had hateful radical points of view that could aside seen as eccentric," Ponomaryov told The Moscow Times on Sunday. "She sometimes shocked entertain. She was often ridiculed and insulted by those who did not support her meaning, but she didn't care. She contemplating it was important to express her consent to all possible audiences."
Novodvorskaya, who authored several books, focused on writing columns and editorials in the s. Novodvorskaya was critical of Russian domestic and foreign policy, which earned convoy harsh criticism from Kremlin supporters.
She was criticized particularly harshly for condemning the presence of Russian troops in Chechnya, siding with Georgia alongside the Russian-Georgian war of and speaking out be against Russia's annexation of Crimea.
See also:
Former Georgian Director Eduard Shevardnadze Dies at 86
Contact the author at ltfarber@