Who is Alexei Navalny?\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Putin has refused to utter Navalny’s name, even as the charismatic Kremlin critic emerged as\u00a0the autocrat’s chief internal threat.<\/p>\n
Navalny was born in 1976 outside of Moscow to parents who run a basket-weaving factory, according to the\u00a0Financial Times and a Russian outlet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0He later started his own party and has embraced some controversial anti-immigrant, nationalist positions, including when he ran for mayor of Moscow in 2013.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Navalny is brave and heroic, and the only viable, known opposition figure in Russia today. But he’s not Nelson Mandela,”\u00a0Eliot Borenstein, a professor\u00a0of 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.”<\/p>\n
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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. In his 2013 mayoral campaign, Navalny was openly critical of Putin’s\u00a0United Russia party, which he labeled the “party of crooks and thieves.\u201d He managed to snag 27% of the vote against a\u00a0Kremlin-backed incumbent in a showing that surprised many observers.\u00a0<\/p>\n By then, Navalny had already amassed a loyal following with his writings exposing corruption at Russian state-owned companies.\u00a0That work mushroomed in 2011, when he founded his Anti-Corruption Foundation, which conducts and publishes investigations aimed at exposing\u00a0self-dealing among Putin’s elite circle.<\/p>\n Earlier this year,\u00a0Navalny’s foundation released a two-hour video investigation detailing a\u00a0luxury 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.” <\/p>\n Putin has flatly denied\u00a0any connection to the opulent property.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Navalny had already been banned from running for office, ahead of\u00a0Russia’s 2018 presidential election. He has been in and out of jail at various points for his activism against Putin.<\/p>\n 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\u00a0with a Russian-made military grade nerve agent, Novichok.<\/p>\n “This is Putin. Whether he gave the order or not, the fault lies entirely with him,” Navalny’s spokeswoman said at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n Putin has repeatedly denied ordering the attempted assassination on Navalny.\u00a0But the incident served to bolster Navalny’s anti-Putin campaign, drawing\u00a0international attention to his cause.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n He has been sentenced to two-plus years in prison and sent to a penal colony outside of Moscow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nAuthorities 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)<\/span><\/p>\nPutin’s palace?<\/h2>\n
Nerve agent poisoning raised Navalny’s profile<\/h2>\n