The mother of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was quoted by Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta as saying that her son had been "alive, healthy and happy" when she last saw him on Monday.

Novaya Gazeta reported that Lyudmila Navalnaya wrote in a Facebook post on Friday: "I don't want to hear any condolences. We saw him in prison on the (Feb) 12, in a meeting. He was alive, healthy and happy."

Navalny, Russia's most famous opposition leader, died Friday after collapsing and losing consciousness at the penal colony north of the Arctic Circle where he was serving a long jail term, the Russian prison service said.

Navalny, 47, rose to prominence more than a decade ago by lampooning President Vladimir Putin and the Russian elite, who Navalny accused of vast corruption, avarice, and opulence.