Clara Ferreira Marques, Columnist

What Navalny’s Arrest Says About the Kremlin

The drama surrounding Alexey Navalny's return to Moscow shows he’s a thorn in Vladimir Putin’s side.

January 18, 2021 at 1:32 PM UTC

Clara Ferreira Marques is a managing editor for Commodities and Energy in Asia. Previously, she was a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and editorial board member.

Homeward bound.
Photographer: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

Watching the images of riot police at a crowded Moscow airport, Alexey Navalny’s supporters being dragged away, and, finally, the wobbly footage of the Kremlin critic’s own detention, the catchphrase made famous by former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin decades ago comes to mind: We wanted better, but it turned out like always.

Nearly five months after being airlifted to Germany for treatment following a nerve-agent attack that left him fighting for his life, the 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner last week announced his plan to go home, using social media to call on supporters to greet him at Vnukovo Airport. Telling the world was as much about publicity as it was about security.