John Mitchell

For years now, opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been a major thorn in the side of Russian president Vladimir Putin. As one of Putin’s most prominent critics, he has repeatedly lead protests against Russia’s ruling party, United Russia, and remains one of the few people in Russia willing to publicly criticize Putin. Navalny has been called “the man Vladimir Putin fears most” and in a country where prominent critics of Putin often wind up dead, has proven remarkably resilient. Despite a criminal conviction for defrauding a state company (widely seen as a politically-motivated conviction), which disqualifies him under Russian law for running for elected office, Navalny remains the biggest name in Russia to openly oppose the Kremlin. In a country where the media is almost entirely under government control, Navalny has managed to embarrass senior Kremlin officials by publicly accusing them of corruption, exposing their luxurious lifestyles, and organizing large street protests in 2011, 2012, and 2013, that reportedly had Putin set on edge.

Navalny has faced many criminal charges seen widely as attempts to silence him, including “defrauding a French perfume company and stealing a nearly worthless piece of street art, and he was caught up in yet another case involving the death of an elk” according to The New York Times. For his part, Navalny has denied all wrongdoing, and has continued to campaign against Putin despite being bogged down by various court cases. Navalny has also faced chemical attacks, in both 2017 and in 2019, but has been lucky enough to survive them largely unharmed.

Now though, Navalny’s luck may have run out. After being poisoned (allegedly by Kremlin agents applying a Soviet-era nerve agent to his underwear) in August of 2020, Navalny was flown to Germany for medical treatment, and on his return to Russia, was imprisoned for supposedly violating a sentence for embezzlement (a conviction disputed by both Navalny and the European Court of Human Rights). Although Russia has denied responsibility for Navalny’s poisoning, there is enough evidence implicating them that the U.S. has already leveled sanctions against Russia. In the latest development, Navalny has been moved from jail to a penal colony, with his exact whereabouts disturbingly unknown.

Given how the Kremlin has treated Navalny and other critics, the international community is understandably concerned with his treatment at the hands of the Russian authorities. In a joint statement at the UN Human Rights Council, 45 countries expressed their concerns at “the deteriorating situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms” in Putin’s modern Russia, “manifested in particular by the unlawful detention, arrest and imprisonment of Mr Alexei Navalny.”  The countries also called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of both Navalny and all others “unlawfully or arbitrarily detained.”

With Navalny remaining popular with the common people of Russia, and pressure mounting externally, it is uncertain what Russia will do next. There remains the very real possibility that Navalny’s life is in danger, but his death would likely spark internal outrage and external sanctions, so while he remains in Russian custody at an undisclosed location, only time will tell what fate will befall Putin’s most prominent critic.