Russia Doesn't Have a Navalny 2.0
Vladimir Putin has moved to crush critic Alexey Navalny. A Q&A with the authors of a forthcoming book points to what's next.
Not so fast.
Photographer: Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images
Alexey Navalny long avoided the fate of Russian opposition voices who have been removed with regularity and impunity. But with his anti-corruption campaign, popular YouTube videos and a “smart voting” strategy that encourages voters to back candidates with the best chance of defeating Kremlin picks, he became an intolerable threat to President Vladimir Putin.
Attacked with a military-grade nerve agent last year, he survived and on returning from convalescence in Berlin was immediately arrested, tried and jailed. Prosecutors have now begun a process that’s expected to ban his Anti-Corruption Foundation as an “extremist organization.” His allies have announced they are disbanding his regional political network under mounting pressure from the authorities.