Who is Alexei Navalny?

Monitoring Desk

Alexei Navalny (picture-alliance/dpa/TASS/V. Sharifulin)

Face of Russia’s opposition

The lawyer-turned-political campaigner has been among the most prominent figures of Russia’s opposition to President Vladimir Putin. Navalny came to prominence in 2008, when his blog exposing malpractice in Russian politics and among the country’s major state-owned companies came to public attention. Revelations published on his blog even led to resignations, a rarity in Russian politics.

Alexei Navalny (picture-alliance/dpa/A. Stenin)

Disputed parliamentary elections

In 2011 Navalny was arrested for the first time. He ended up spending 15 days in prison for his role at a rally outside the State Duma in Moscow. A recent parliamentary election victory for Putin’s United Russia had been marred by instances of ballot stuffing, reported by demonstrators on social media. Upon his release, Navalny pledged to continue the protest movement.

Alexei Navalny (Reuters)

Second jail term

After being reelected president in 2012, Putin ordered Russia’s Investigative Committee to launch a criminal inquiry into Navalny’s past. The following year the campaigner was charged and sentenced again, this time for five years, for alleged embezzlement in the city of Kirov. However, he was released the following day pending affirmation from a higher court. The sentence was later suspended.

Alexei Navalny (picture-alliance/dpa)

Anti-Kremlin platform grows

Despite being embroiled in legal troubles, Navalny was allowed to run in the 2013 Moscow mayoral election. A second-place finish behind Putin ally Sergei Sobyanin was seen as an overwhelming success and galvanized the Russian opposition movement.

Alexei Navalny (Alexei Navalny/Youtube)

Navalny takes to social media

His anti-Kremlin rhetoric led Navalny to be banned from appearing on Russian state-owned television. That forced him to deliver his political message over social media and his blog. His talent for public speaking, punchy use of language and humorous mockery of Putin and his loyalists mobilized a legion of young followers.

Alexei Navalny (Getty Images/AFP/K. Kudryavtsev)

Presidential ambitions

In December 2016, the opposition leader announced the formal start of his campaign to run for the Russian presidency in March 2018. However, repeated accusations of corruption, which his supporters say are politically motivated, ultimately barred him from running for public office.

Alexei Navalny (picture-alliance/Sputnik/A. Kudenko)

Convicted of corruption

In 2016 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia had violated Navalny’s right to a fair trial in the Kirov case. Although Russia’s Supreme Court overturned the five-year sentence, the verdict was sent back to the Kirov court. In 2017, this court again handed Navalny a suspended five-year sentence.

Navalny is arrested by police while protesting (picture-alliance/AP Photo/Evgeny Feldman for Alexey Navalny's campaign)

Moscow’s biggest protests in 6 years

In February 2017, anti-corruption rallies across dozens of Russian cities led to the arrests of over 1,000 demonstrators, including Navalny. The protests, believed to have been the largest in the Russian capital since 2012, were spurred by a report published by Navalny linking Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to a property empire valued at billions of euros. Navalny was released 15 days later.

Alexei Navalny with green dye on his face after an attack (picture-alliance/AP Photo/E. Feldman)

Physically assaulted

Navalny was assaulted and hospitalized in April 2017 after being hit in the eye with a chemical green dye. The attack permanently damaged his right cornea. Navalny accused Russian authorities of stopping him from seeking medical treatment abroad due to the embezzlement conviction against him. He was eventually permitted by the Kremlin human rights council to travel to Spain for eye surgery.

Navalny (Reuters/M. Shemetov)

Repeated arrests

In 2018, Navalny was jailed for 30 days. After his release in September, he faced another 20-day stint. In April 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Russia had violated Navalny’s rights by holding him under house arrest for most of 2014 during the Kirov embezzlement case.

Navalny sitting on a bed in a hospital | zeitliche EINSCHRÄNKUNG (picture-alliance/AP Photo/navalny.com)

Alleged poisoning

In July 2019, only weeks after being released from a 10-day jail sentence, Navalny was again jailed for 30 days for violating Russia’s strict protest laws. The opposition leader accused Russia of poisoning him with an allergic agent while in jail.

An official looks into a security camera while raiding Alexei Navalny's office (Reuters/FBK Handout)

Raids and frozen assets

Using YouTube and social media, Navalny had amassed a following of millions by late December 2019. Then police raided his Anti-Corruption Foundation headquarters (above), detaining him in the process. His staff said officials wanted to confiscate their tech equipment. Just a few months later, in March, Navalny reported that his bank accounts and those of his family members had been frozen.

German paramedics push a stretcher at the entrance of the Charite hospital in Berlin

A plane — and a coma

On August 20, Navalny’s spokesperson announced the activist became violently ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow. The plane made an emergency landing, and Navalny was rushed to a hospital in Russia’s Omsk and later evacuated to Berlin’s Charite clinic (above). Doctors said he was in a coma. Navalny’s associates claimed he had been poisoned and pointed to previous attacks on the activist.

Navalny and his wife pictured in the Charite hospital

Back from the brink

Navalny was taken out of the coma less than three weeks later and was said to be responsive. Not long afterwards, he was posting on Instagram, saying he was slowly regaining strength following weeks of only being “technically alive.” The German government said labs in France and Sweden both confirmed that Navalny had been poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.

Russland Gebäude des Geheimdienst FSB

A smoking gun?

Months later, Navalny released the recording of a phone call he made to a man he said was a member of Russia’s Federal Security Service, whose headquarters is pictured above. The alleged agent said he was not directly involved in poisoning Navalny, but deeply involved with efforts to clean up any traces of Novichok. Moscow dismissed the recording as fake.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia are seen at the passport control point at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport

Return, arrest, and trial

Navalny had promised to return to Russia and he did so, despite warnings that he would be arrested. He was taken into police custody shortly after arriving in Moscow. The dissident, seen here at a police station, had said he was “not afraid of anything.” He was sentenced to 30 days in prison at a swiftly convened trial the following day.

Courtesy: DW