The Kremlin's number one enemy is no more. Alexei Navalny, 47, died on Friday February 16, the Russian prison administration announced. The death of Alexeï Navalny comes one month before the next Russian presidential election in which Vladimir Putin has declared himself a candidate. 

A look back at the eventful life of Alexeï Navalny, who established himself as one of the rare opposition figures to directly challenge Russian power embodied by Vladimir Putin.

An anti-corruption activist from the Web

The notoriety of this trained lawyer, married, father of two children, and practicing Orthodox, has continued to grow in recent years, more in the West than in his own country, through his arrests and incarcerations.

It all began with the launch, in 2007, of his anti-corruption crusade via the social network LiveJournal, then on his personal blog Rospil.info from 2009. Totally unknown in Russia, Alexeï Navalny then devoted his energy to denouncing the extent of the corruption which is plaguing the country and the Russian elites.

In 2010, he accused Transneft, a Russian energy industry giant, of having embezzled $4 billion (3.3 billion euros) during the construction of a gigantic pipeline linking Siberia to the Pacific Ocean. . His methods and revelations have earned him the nickname "Russian Julian Assange" by Western media, in reference to the founder of WikiLeaks.

In 2011, he founded an organization, the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK), to track embezzlement in public companies and corruption in large Russian groups. The well-documented investigations of Alexeï Navalny and his teams have generated millions of views on YouTube and are disturbing even beyond the political sphere.

The opponent attracts many enmities by not hesitating to attack the flagships of the Russian economy, whether it is the giant Gazprom, which has the monopoly on the exploitation of natural gas in Russia, but also Rosneft, the country's main oil company, or the VTP bank.

After being subjected to several administrative obstructions, targeted by an investigation for “money laundering” and having its accounts frozen, the FBK was classified, in October 2019, as a “foreign agent” by the Ministry of Justice.

Ineligible until 2028

At the same time, with the legitimacy gained from his fight against corruption, Alexeï Navalny is increasingly involved in the political arena, where the opposition is marginalized just as much as it is ignored by the media controlled by those in power.

After the 2011 legislative elections, won by Vladimir Putin's party, United Russia, he began a new fight with what he called the "party of thieves and crooks" by denouncing electoral fraud noted during the vote.

Alexei Navalny's charisma and speaking skills propel him to the ranks of the leaders of the protests in the winter of 2011-2012, which saw the opposition mobilize hundreds of thousands of demonstrators against the government.

Also read: Which voices are still left in Russia to oppose Vladimir Putin?

His omnipresence on social networks and his activism give him increased visibility, but also cost him numerous legal summonses and smear campaigns going so far as to accuse him of being a CIA agent.

In 2012, he was sentenced to 15 days in prison after clashes with the police during a demonstration, before being placed under house arrest for almost a year, between February 2014 and February 2015, as part of a procedure which also targets his brother, Oleg Navalny.

The two men are jointly accused of having embezzled 27 million rubles (394,000 euros) to the detriment of the French cosmetics manufacturer Yves Rocher. He will be sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

For his part, Alexeï Navalny, who vigorously contests all accusations of embezzlement, multiplies the provocations by violating his house arrest, by going to a demonstration under the walls of the Kremlin in December 2014, then cutting his electronic bracelet in early January 2015.

Power of nuisance

The opponent did not give up and managed to present his candidacy for mayor of Moscow in 2013 and officially received 27% of the votes. A result that he estimated was much lower than his actual score, and which pushed him to request, in vain, a recount of the votes.

Still, this is the last time that Alexeï Navalny is authorized to participate in an election on Russian territory. His candidacy for the 2018 presidential election was rejected by the Central Electoral Commission, due to a five-year suspended prison sentence for embezzlement in a case dating back to 2009. The Commission even warned that the opponent could not stand for election before 2028. Alexeï Navalny accuses the Kremlin of torpedoing his candidacy to stifle the opposition.

But even when declared ineligible, the activist, once close to ultra-nationalist circles, calls on the opposition to remain mobilized, increases calls for demonstrations, and maintains a power of nuisance.

In September 2019, while around sixty opposition candidates, some of whom are among his allies, were excluded from the elections supposed to renew the Moscow Parliament, Alexeï Navalny called on his supporters to vote usefully. Precisely in favor of the candidate best placed against that of power. A profitable strategy which saw the United Russia party lose 19 of the 45 seats in the capital.

But while he was preparing an active campaign in view of the Russian legislative elections scheduled for September, on August 20, 2020, Alexeï Navalny was placed in intensive care in serious condition in a hospital in Siberia after feeling unwell on board a plane. This is the start of the alleged poisoning affair, ordered according to the opponent by Vladimir Putin.

Far from going into exile, Alexeï Navalny made a bold return to Russia on January 17, 2021, certain of being arrested there. As soon as he arrives at the airport, he is arrested in front of cameras around the world.

Two days later, the opponent strikes again. In a video viewed tens of millions of times on YouTube, he accuses Vladimir Putin of owning a sumptuous palace on the Black Sea.

The shock wave is such that the Russian president is forced to personally deny it. Despite these successes and the affair of his poisoning, popular mobilization in Russia remained timid, the demonstrations being quickly repressed.

See alsoIn Russia, intimidation and repression of opponents are increasing

The authorities are determined to break the opponent who, for his part, says he is determined never to give in. “I will not be silent and I hope that everyone who hears me will not be silent,” he proclaims in court in September 2022, after 12 days of isolation for having condemned the invasion of Ukraine.

Disappeared from the radar for several weeks, Alexeï Navalny gave news at the end of December 2023 on social networks, ensuring that he was "fine", after his transfer to a penal colony in the Russian Arctic. On February 1, 2024, he called for demonstrations during the presidential election scheduled for March 15 to 17. "I like the idea that those who vote against Putin go to the polls at the same time, at noon. Noon against Putin." A final declaration which will serve as a political legacy. 

*This article, first published in January 2021, was updated on February 16, 2024, after the announcement of the death of Alexeï Nalvany.

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