In most authoritarian systems, one figure stands alone in the political spotlight. But Russian President Vladimir Putin, although he wields all the levers of power, still shares the stage with a nemesis whose name he is unwilling to utter aloud: imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.
Navalny had already been sentenced to terms of nine years and 2 1/2 years in prison on a melange of charges that are widely seen as retribution for his efforts to expose what he describes as the pervasive lawlessness, corruption, and repression of Putin and his political system.
On August 4, he was sentenced to a total of 19 years in a maximum-security “special regime” prison after being convicted of extremism and other charges that he calls absurd.
In an Instagram post on August 3, about 24 hours before the judge read the verdict, Navalny wrote that he expected sentence of 15 to 20 years and that such a long term – a “Stalinist” sentence – had a single purpose: “To frighten.”
“You, not me,” he added.
But the state may have another aim in mind as well.
“The government’s goal has been perfectly clear,” Navalny associate Vladimir Milov said in an interview with RFE/RL in February. “To completely isolate Navalny from society. And that has not happened. We are constantly receiving emboldening messages from him, even from prison.
“A secondary goal was to completely destroy his organization,” Milov added. “And that has also not happened. Although many were forced to emigrate, we continue not only to work but to influence the political situation in Russia."
“Navalny, undoubtedly, has become the symbol of the opposition,” added independent political analyst Konstantin Kalachyov.
Despite harassment, arrests, physical attacks, and an August 2020 nerve-agent poisoning attack that nearly killed him, Navalny continues to play that role, striving to remain relevant even in isolation.
Through what to many comes across as uncanny political acumen, humor, intellect, and self-deprecation, the 47-year-old Navalny has defied the Kremlin’s attempts to sideline him and to silence his overarching message: that Russia’s future can be very different from its oppressive past and present.
'Honest People'
In December 2020, Navalny faced a fateful decision. He was in Germany, recovering from the poisoning that he blamed on Putin and the Federal Security Service (FSB). The Russian government was sending unmistakable signals that if he returned to Russia he would be arrested and imprisoned.
Nonetheless, he seemed never to hesitate. On January 17, 2021, he returned to Russia by plane. He was detained at passport control and has been in custody ever since.
Aleksei Navalny: A Life Of Politics, Protest, And Prison Time
One of the first messages he sent from jail was to his friend, journalist Yevgenia Albats, in early April 2021.
“Zhenya,” he wrote, using a diminutive of her name. “Everything is OK. History is moving ahead. And Russia is going through it, and we are going along with it. We’ll make it (probably). I am fine, and I have no regrets. And you shouldn’t either. Don’t despair. Everything will be fine. And even if it isn’t, we can console ourselves that we were honest people.”
Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, told RFE/RL that “in the political sense,” Navalny had to return to Russia “because he is the main fighter against this regime.”
His decision to confront Putin’s government directly at the cost of his own freedom became for many a defining and inspirational example.
“Navalny’s return was the act that gave us all a chance to unite and fight for our rights,” Alipat Sultanbegova, a former Navalny volunteer in the southern city of Krasnodar who has been given seven short jail sentences over the last two years for her protests against the war in Ukraine, told RFE/RL in a recent interview.
“He continues to win victories even as they give him new sentences…. If Aleksei Navalny had remained in Europe, he would not be who he is: a courageous man who loves his cause and his country.”
In particular, Navalny’s constant refrain that authoritarianism will not last forever in Russia -- that “history is moving ahead,” as he wrote to Albats -- has resonated with many young people whose entire lives have been spent under Putin.
“I lived for a long time in a pro-Putin, pro-Stalin family where the television was on around the clock,” Sultanbegova said, adding that, inspired by Navalny and others, such as murdered opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, “I want to make my tiny contribution to bringing about the beautiful Russia of the future.”
In a letter from prison to mark the first anniversary of his return to Russia, Navalny wrote: “The authorities fear those who aren’t afraid -- or, more precisely, those who might be afraid but who are able to overcome their fear.”
On the same occasion, Sergei Davidis, who heads the political prisoners program at the now-banned Memorial human rights group, wrote: “Navalny has demonstrated that he is, undoubtedly, the most powerful politician in modern Russia.”
No Kangaroo? How About A Kimono?
At times over his long opposition career, Navalny has provoked controversy, criticized for racist and nationalist statements made early in his career and for his reaction to Russia’s armed takeover of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014, among other things.
More recently, he has come out adamantly against Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And in the eyes of supporters, he has demonstrated political adaptability and a personable style that has largely surmounted such criticisms and helped him resist the onslaught of attacks from the government.
“I only know that such a capability for intellectual and moral development, such a flawless sense of style, and -- most importantly -- an undoubted capacity for self-irony as Aleksei has demonstrated, is not at all compatible with ‘leaderism’ or ‘totalitarian inclinations,’” wrote Moscow-based poet and activist Lev Rubenshtein in a post on Facebook in February. “Like many others, I continue to live in hope, despite the gloomy march of events…. I hope this is only the beginning of Aleksei’s political, personal, private, and creative biography.”
In prison, Navalny has continued to demonstrate such qualities, using his training as a lawyer to mock the authorities and demonstrate that his spirit has not been quelled, despite prison conditions and treatment that supporters argue often amounts to torture.
Throughout most of 2023, he has peppered the prison administration with bizarre requests, including that he be allowed a kimono, a balalaika, and even a pet kangaroo. When he receives dry and bureaucratic rejections to his requests, he posts them online.
“When you are in a punishment cell and don’t have much entertainment, you can always amuse yourself by corresponding with the prison administration,” he wrote in an Instagram post in June that has more than 130,000 likes.
“Regarding your demand that a black belt in karate be awarded to your cellmate who killed a man with his bare hands, we report that the question of bestowing martial arts qualifications is not within the competency of the administration of this facility,” read one response he received.
In another case, Navalny’s request that his cellblock officer be given a “massage chair for reducing stress” was refused because “we don’t have any massage chairs.”
The starkly humorous correspondence seems aimed to show that Navalny remains unbowed, almost above the fray, and that one can always do something, regardless of one’s circumstances.
'Fairy Tales And Comic Books'
Navalny used his closing speech in court in his current case on July 20 not to talk about himself, but about his country.
Russia, under Putin, he said, “has made several big jumps, pushing everyone around, but then she slipped and -- with a roar, destroying everything around -- collapsed,” he told the court at the trial, which is being held behind closed doors at the prison where he is incarcerated.
“And now it is floundering in a pool of mud and blood, with broken bones, an impoverished, robbed population; and with tens of thousands of people who have died in the most stupid and senseless war of the 21st century.
“But sooner or later, of course, it will lift itself up again,” he concluded. “And what its foundation will be in the future depends on us.”
Navalny’s return to Russia and his statements from prison have posed a question to the entire country.
“Navalny is an irritant to those who live in preordained obedience,” analyst Kolesnikov said. “Usually, people say ‘learned helplessness,’ but these people don’t really feel completely helpless. They just live their lives and do not want anyone to interfere. But they don’t want Putin’s interference either.”
Moscow journalist Andrei Loshak, in a January 2022 Facebook post to mark the first anniversary of Navalny’s return to Russia, stressed the role of the “silent” Russian populace.
“With each day in prison, he becomes morally stronger, deriving strength from the knowledge that he is historically correct,” Loshak wrote. “But there is a third player in this struggle. Unfortunately, lone heroes only overcome the villain in fairy tales and comic books. In reality, the outcome will be decided by our still-silent people.
“The hero has already done everything in his power,” he added.
