Alexei Navalny (1976–2024), Russian opposition leader
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2 min readAlexei Navalny was an anticorruption activist and politician who led the Russian opposition to President Vladimir Putin.
- Died: February 16, 2024 (Who else died on February 16?)
- Details of death: Died in a Russian prison at the age of 47.
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Alexei Navalny’s legacy
Navalny was best known in the West as a political prisoner, having been in and out of Russian prisons over the past 13 years. In Russia, he was a high-profile figure who led the opposition political party Russia of the Future and investigated governmental corruption as the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation.
Navalny first rose to prominence as a young lawyer active in the political party Yabloko. He maintained a financial blog which, while it advised small investors, also found evidence of financial corruption within the government and state-owned companies. Navalny’s blog was politically daring, and it became even more so when he joined protests against Russia’s 2011 parliamentary election. He was arrested at a large demonstration in Moscow and sentenced to 15 days in prison. Upon his release, he ramped up his opposition work and was soon jailed again, designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.
Both in and out of prison, as well as under house arrest for a period, Navalny continued to rally against Putin, leading the opposition both in person – at rallies and protests – and via social media. In 2020, Navalny made international headlines when he was poisoned with a nerve agent in Siberia, coming dangerously close to death. He made an unlikely full recovery and was imprisoned again within a few months of his poisoning. In a 2021 interview with The New York Times, Navalny said he believed there was a fifty percent chance he would be killed in prison. His death in a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle prompted protests and memorials across Russia and worldwide.
Notable quote
“Sooner or later… Russia will move on to a democratic, European path of development. Simply because that is what the people want.” —from a 2021 interview for The New York Times
Full obituary: The New York Times
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