Who is Alexei Navalny? Putin’s biggest political rival has been poisoned and jailed
WASHINGTON – The story of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s rise to international prominence involves poison, a palace and a penal colony.
And of course Vladimir Putin.
Navalny is a 45-year-old blogger and anti-corruption crusader now imprisoned in Russia, and his fate has become one of many flashpoints between Washington and Moscow.
In their high-stakes summit on Wednesday, President Joe Biden is expected to press Putin on Russia’s sweeping crackdown against dissent, which has specifically targeted Navalny and his supporters.
“Navalny’s death would be another indication that Russia has little or no intention of abiding by basic fundamental human rights,” Biden said Monday after Putin refused to guarantee that Navalny would leave prison alive. “It would be a tragedy.”
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Putin has refused to utter Navalny’s name, even as the charismatic Kremlin critic emerged as the autocrat’s chief internal threat.
Navalny was born in 1976 outside of Moscow to parents who run a basket-weaving factory, according to the Financial Times and a Russian outlet.
He is a lawyer and financial expert by training, but he got involved in Russian politics more than two decades ago, when he joined a socialist-democratic party called Yabloko. He later started his own party and has embraced some controversial anti-immigrant, nationalist positions, including when he ran for mayor of Moscow in 2013.
“Navalny is brave and heroic, and the only viable, known opposition figure in Russia today. But he’s not Nelson Mandela,” Eliot Borenstein, a professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University, wrote in a Facebook post in February. “I want him to gain power, and I expect him to disappoint us profoundly.”
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny takes a selfie with protestors during an opposition rally in central Moscow on April 30, 2018, to demand internet freedom in Russia.
Authorities tried to block access to the popular messaging app Telegram in the latest onslaught against dissent under Vladimir Putin. At least 8,000 people including top opposition leader Alexei Navalny turned up in the center of the Russian capital. (Photo: ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
Putin’s palace?
In his 2013 mayoral campaign, Navalny was openly critical of Putin’s United Russia party, which he labeled the “party of crooks and thieves.” He managed to snag 27% of the vote against a Kremlin-backed incumbent in a showing that surprised many observers.
By then, Navalny had already amassed a loyal following with his writings exposing corruption at Russian state-owned companies. That work mushroomed in 2011, when he founded his Anti-Corruption Foundation, which conducts and publishes investigations aimed at exposing self-dealing among Putin’s elite circle.
Earlier this year, Navalny’s foundation released a two-hour video investigation detailing a luxury mansion on Russia’s southern Black Sea coast purportedly belonging to Putin. The “Putin’s palace” video, which has been viewed more than 117 million times, claims the estate is 39 times the size of Monaco and was paid for with “the largest bribe in history.”
Putin has flatly denied any connection to the opulent property.
Earlier this month, Russian authorities outlawed Navalny’s anti-corruption organizations and labeled his allies extremists, preventing them from running in upcoming parliamentary elections set for September.
Navalny had already been banned from running for office, ahead of Russia’s 2018 presidential election. He has been in and out of jail at various points for his activism against Putin.
Nerve agent poisoning raised Navalny’s profile
Last August, Navalny was flying back to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk when he fell suddenly and severely ill. Amid international pressure, he was transferred to a hospital in Germany, where doctors said he had been poisoned with a Russian-made military grade nerve agent, Novichok.
“This is Putin. Whether he gave the order or not, the fault lies entirely with him,” Navalny’s spokeswoman said at the time.
Putin has repeatedly denied ordering the attempted assassination on Navalny. But the incident served to bolster Navalny’s anti-Putin campaign, drawing international attention to his cause.
When he returned to Russia in January, Navalny was immediately arrested and charged with violating the terms of his parole from an earlier conviction. Navalny had been unable to meet those conditions because he was in Germany receiving treatment.
He has been sentenced to two-plus years in prison and sent to a penal colony outside of Moscow.
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After Navalny’s arrest, tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets — including one demonstration held on a frozen lake in Kazan in southwest Russia while it was minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit — to demand his release.
Russian security forces quickly moved to quell the protests with mass arrests of Russian citizens and journalists. But international attention has not faded.
In an interview with NBC News that aired Monday, Putin declined to guarantee Navalny would be allowed to leave prison alive.
“He will not be treated any worse than anybody else,” the former KGB operative said.
Biden said Navalny’s death “would do nothing but hurt (Putin’s) relationships with the rest of the world … and with me.”
Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard
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