Putin’s biggest feared opponent – Kremlin critic Navalny

Russian President Putin never spoke his name publicly; instead, he referred to Alexei Navalny as “that person.” The Kremlin critic was considered Putin’s most dangerous domestic political opponent. A portrait.

No Russian opposition politician has ever been as dangerous to Russian President Vladimir Putin as Alexei Navalny. According to Russian sources, he has now died in a penal colony in Siberia at the age of 47. The cause is still unknown. Navalny’s death is one of a series of mysterious deaths behind which Russian authorities are suspected.

Navalny grew up near Moscow. He earned a degree in law and another in finance, worked as a lawyer and, thanks to a scholarship, spent some time in the USA at the elite Yale University. Especially with his fight against corruption in the state apparatus under Putin, the lawyer made many enemies among the country’s powerful.

Famous for his charismatic speeches and internet appearances

Navalny gained international fame with his fiery, anti-government speeches during the protests after the 2011 Russian parliamentary election in Moscow. Navalny was among the first opposition members to be arrested. Asked about the dangers that a confrontation with the Kremlin could bring, he said: “Why should I be afraid?”

Navalny also became known through Internet videos and blogs. In it, he tirelessly denounced corruption among the Russian elite and described Russia as a country ruled by “crooks and thieves.”

He bought shares in Russian gas and oil companies and, as a partner, pushed for more transparency. In 2013 he was sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement. A higher court sentenced him to probation.

Candidacy as a Muscovite Mayor

In the same year, Navalny ran for mayor of Moscow and came in second place. Navalny’s supporters still saw the result as an impressive achievement for a man who was effectively excluded from reporting in state media.

After opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was shot near the Kremlin in 2015, Navalny’s popularity increased. State media ignored him, but Navalny primarily reached young Russians via the Internet. In this way, he was able to build a strong network of regional offices outside of the major cities.

However, he found it difficult to warm up to people outside the big cities. He also offended some civil rights activists because he took part in ultranationalist demonstrations and railed against illegal immigration. Some chalked it up to a populist and nationalist move.

Admired in the West

Nevertheless, Navalny’s popularity grew increasingly. He gradually became the most recognizable face in Russia’s divided opposition and a central figurehead of the unprecedented protests against dubious national election results and the exclusion of independent candidates.

Navalny was admired by his hundreds of thousands of supporters, as well as many politicians and supporters in the West. They see him as a courageous and charismatic opposition politician who was willing to risk everything for a country that he believed could one day be free.

Putin – the “old man in his bunker”

Putin refused to say Navalny’s name and always referred to him in public as “that person.” Navalny, on the other hand, often targeted Putin. During the corona pandemic, he described the head of state as “the old man in his bunker”. His colleagues used drones to film the luxurious residences of Putin and his civil servants and scrutinize their assets.

Navalny often responded to attacks by public servants and physical attacks with sarcasm. After an attacker threw green-colored disinfectant into his face in 2017, severely damaging one of his eyes, Navalny joked in a video blog that he was being compared to the comic book character Hulk.

In 2019, according to authorities, he suffered an allergic reaction while in custody. Doctors, however, spoke of poisoning.

Collapse on a domestic flight

A year later, he collapsed on a domestic flight he was organizing for opposition candidates. He was initially treated in Russia, then transferred to Germany to the Berlin Charité. Poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok was diagnosed. Putin rejected allegations that assassins from the Russian secret service FSB were involved. “If someone had wanted to poison him, they would have finished him off,” he said.

Navalny responded with a prank phone call. According to his own statements, he spoke on the phone with a suspected member of a group of officers from the domestic intelligence service FSB who are said to have carried out the poison attack and then tried to cover it up. He published the conversation. The FSB rejected the recording as a fake.

Voluntary return to Russia

Despite the suspected attack, Navalny voluntarily returned to Russia after his recovery in early 2021. Before his return trip from Germany, Navalny explained why he wanted to return to Russia even though he knew he was at risk of arrest:

In Russia, the authorities arrested him on the grounds that he had not contacted them personally during his treatment in Germany. Navalny was sentenced to a total of more than 30 years in prison in several trials. The Kremlin portrays Navalny as a criminal guilty of fraud, contempt of court and extremism. Navalny, the Russian authorities have repeatedly said, is a henchman and troublemaker for the US secret service CIA. He was intent on destabilizing Russia, overthrowing the authorities and turning Moscow into a docile US vassal state.

Just a few days ago “alive, healthy and full of life”

But in the Siberian prison camp, Navalny was seen as a nuisance and disruptive factor for the Kremlin – also because he called for protests against Putin before the scheduled presidential election in March.

Until the very end, he managed to address the public with encouraging and often humorous texts. However, his appearances at court proceedings repeatedly caused horror because he was becoming increasingly weak and physically deteriorating. Doctors appealed to Putin to ensure Navalny’s right to medical treatment as a guarantor of the constitution.

According to the judiciary, the country’s most famous political prisoner has now died in the Siberian penal colony. It was said that he collapsed after a walk and attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

If the information about Navalny’s death is confirmed, he leaves behind his wife Julia and their two children.

With information from Reuters, AFP, dpa and AP