Navalny death is a pre-election gambit from Putin, anti-Kremlin activist Bill Browder says

• Bill Browder, the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management and a friend of Navalny, accused the Russian leader of being behind the death.
• The prison service said the cause of Navalny's death was still to be established.
• Russia's Foreign Ministry on Friday said the West's reaction to Navalny's death was "self-exposing," given that no forensic medical examination had been made available at the time.

Anti-Kremlin activist Bill Browder said he believes Alexei Navalny's death was intended as a message to political opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of elections next month.

Dissident Navalny, who died Friday, had been serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges of extremism in Russia, which he vehemently denied.

World leaders reacted with dismay and suspicion to the death, with U.S. President Joe Biden saying "Putin is responsible." Russia's Foreign Ministry on Friday said the West's reaction to Navalny's death was "self-exposing," given that no forensic medical examination had been made available at the time.

Browder, the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management and a friend of Navalny, also accused the Russian leader of being behind the death.

"Well this is happening before the presidential election and I should use that word lightly, they don't do elections in Russia, it's the fake election. But Putin has to create the sense of legitimacy and the last thing he wants to do is to have Alexei Navalny saying things from prison that gets people to not support Putin," he told CNBC's Silvia Amaro Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.

"And so I think this is a pre-election gambit that Putin is taking, kill his main opponent and send a message to everyone else that if you get involved