Russian opposition – Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya 2024

‘Navalny’ Review: Speaking Truth to Power in a Corrupt System
Even with its subject in prison, the documentary plays like a crowd-pleaser. (April 2022)
Putin’s palace. The story of the world’s biggest bribe
full investigation, narrated by Alexei Navalny with English subtitles
Putin’s palace. The story of the world’s biggest bribe (YouTube)
This video was recorded by Navalny before his return to Russia, but we decided to publish it afterward: Alexei didn’t want the main character of this investigation — Vladimir Putin — to think that we are afraid of him and that we can uncover his biggest secret only while being abroad. (February 2021)
“A film is a weapon on time delay”
— an interview with “Navalny” director Daniel Roher
The mysterious, violent and unsolved deaths of Putin’s foes and critics
Alexei Navalny is latest of Putin’s opponents to have died over course of Russian leader’s nearly 25 years in power (16 February 2024)

Patriot – A Memoir
By Alexei Navalny
12 November
A Legacy of Truth: Alexei Navalny’s Final Act of Patriotism
Jeremy Kinsman
Patriot, Alexei Navalny’s posthumously published memoir, is a compelling chronicle of courage and insight that will, hopefully, be read for generations to come.
(Policy) The book is the account of Navalny’s rise and fight as a popular and principled dissident against the corrupt regime that tried to eliminate him. His death last February was as dramatic as his life, coming in a Siberian prison, where he had resisted the state’s psychological torture but could not counter the costs of captivity to his physical well-being. The parting segments of this book are written a few weeks before he dies – an end most objective observers have described as murder – after he accepts there will be no escape.
Posthumously published memoirs are scarce. Some great novelists and poets – Kafka, Lampedusa, Sylvia Plath – left behind unpublished manuscripts that became classics. But in nonfiction memoirs, the closest to Navalny’s I can think of is Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl, an innocent victim’s private imprisonment journal, written while hiding from a different, equally monstrous enemy.
Unlike Anne, writing in solitude and in hiding, Navalny was a political protagonist, openly challenging his repressive and corrupt adversaries. He wrote the book describing their attempts to destroy him, to publicize the extent of their crimes, to hasten, if possible, their political demise.
Navalny wrote as a proud Russian patriot. “I just love Russia,” he asserts.”Russia is one of the components from which I’m made.”
Navalny’s goal was to lead the fight to change the regime so that Russia could “become a normal country at last. He recalls that he “once described the beautiful Russia of the Future as a metaphysical Canada: a rich northern country with a low population density, where everyone lives well and is obsessed by philosophical reasoning.”
As he confronted the thoroughly corrupt Russian state of the present, he warned us not to “equate the Russian state with the Russian people,” calling it the “biggest mistake people in the West make.” …

27 October
Misconceptions About Russia Are a Threat to America
(Foreign Affairs The Backstory newsletter) This week marked the release of Alexei Navalny’s posthumous memoir, which recounts his life as a leading Russian opposition figure—and later, a political prisoner—up until his death in an Arctic penal colony, in February. The last section of the book, which details Navalny’s final years behind bars, echoes the writing of another famed Russian dissident: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose writings on Stalin-era repression and the Soviet labor system ultimately led to his exile from the Soviet Union, in 1974.
In a 1980 essay for Foreign Affairs, Solzhenitsyn sought to lay bare what he called the “true nature” of the regime whose oppression he had fled six years earlier. Détente with Moscow was impossible, he warned; that Americans believed that they could coexist with the Soviet Union demonstrated that they did not take the threat of communism seriously enough. The ideology was primed to “spread, cancer-like, to destroy mankind.” It could be halted, Solzhenitsyn wrote, “only by force from without or by disintegration from within.”
March 1, 1980
Misconceptions About Russia Are a Threat to America
By Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
(Foreign Affairs) Two mistakes are especially common. One is the failure to understand the radical hostility of communism to mankind as a whole—the failure to realize that communism is irredeemable, that there exist no “better” variants of communism; that it is incapable of growing “kinder,” that it cannot survive as an ideology without using terror, and that, consequently, to coexist with communism on the same planet is impossible. Either it will spread, cancer-like, to destroy mankind, or else mankind will have to rid itself of communism (and even then face lengthy treatment for secondary tumors).
The second and equally prevalent mistake is to assume an indissoluble link between the universal disease of communism and the country where it first seized control—Russia. This error skews one’s perception of the threat and cripples all attempts to respond sensibly to it, thus leaving the West disarmed. This misinterpretation is fraught with tragic consequences; it is imperiling every nation, Americans no less than Russians

20 October
How Aleksei Navalny’s Prison Diaries Got Published
In his posthumous memoir, compiled with help from his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny faced the fact that Vladimir Putin might succeed in silencing him. The book will keep “his legacy alive,” Navalnaya said.
(NYT) Aleksei A. Navalny knew he would likely die in prison.
In messages to his supporters posted on social media, Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, often struck a hopeful note about the future of his country, or a comic one, joking about the absurdities and indignities of prison life.
But in the journal entries he managed to write and smuggle out of prison, he was more introspective, and blunt: “I knew from the outset that I would be imprisoned for life — either the rest of my life or until the end of the life of this regime,” Navalny wrote in his diary in March 2022. “I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here.”
He reflected on what that would mean: missing birthdays, anniversaries, his children’s graduations. Never meeting his grandchildren. The thought made him want to scream and smash things, he wrote. But then he thought of other Russian dissidents who had suffered similar fates. “I resigned myself and accept it,” he wrote.
Those passages appear near the end of “Patriot,” a posthumous memoir by Navalny that will be published on Tuesday [22 October], eight months after his death at age 47 in an Arctic penal colony.

6 August
Can Freed Russian Dissidents Help Energize an Opposition Movement?
The release of activists like Ilya Yashin gives new hope to an movement in which various groups are often at war with each other. But many have doubts.
(NYT) Among Russians who oppose Vladimir V. Putin and his brutal Ukraine invasion, hopes are high that the Russian dissidents freed last week as part of a prisoner exchange with the West will breathe new life into a fragmented opposition force.
But if it promises an injection of energy into a movement struggling to effect change inside of Russia, it reignites a question older than the Russian Revolution — where is the more effective place to advocate for democratic change: from a prison cell inside of Russia, or in exile?
Either way, the challenge is daunting. For years, decades even, Russia’s opposition has been divided and beset with infighting; the Ukraine invasion has only exacerbated the grievances. And that was before the most influential opposition leader, Aleksei A. Navalny, died in an Arctic penal colony in February.

2 August
Navalny Couldn’t Be Freed Until Gershkovich Was Kidnapped. Gershkovich Couldn’t Be Freed Until Navalny Was Dead.
M. Gessen
(NYT) On Thursday, Russia released the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, along with 15 other inmates. In exchange, Germany, the United States, Slovenia, Norway and Poland together released a total of eight prisoners, including the Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov. It was the largest and most complicated prisoner swap in U.S. history. It was also the largest such bargain the West has ever struck with Russia, a country whose legal system is designed to punish opponents of the regime and to generate hostages.
The story of this exchange began a year before Gershkovich’s arrest, in late January 2022. Christo Grozev, an investigative journalist living in Vienna, was strolling along Silver Lake Reservoir in Los Angeles with Maria Pevchikh, a leading figure in the anti-corruption movement started by the Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny. …
For Grozev himself, the risk is more specific. The man he had helped put behind bars had been welcomed back to Moscow by Putin himself, with a warm embrace at the bottom of aircraft steps. “I don’t know how I feel about Krasikov being free,” Grozev said. “He stared at me in court.” The moral hazard of this swap may translate into mortal danger for the people who made it possible.
One of the people who made it possible was Aleksei Navalny. If he had not been arrested, Grozev and Pevchikh wouldn’t have concocted Secret Project Silver Lake. If he had not died, the swap would most likely have never happened. Putin would probably never have let him go free. “This should have been such a happy day,” Pevchikh said to me. “But — ” She paused. “This ‘but’ is as big as Earth itself.”
Compounding Pevchikh’s sense of loss is the fact that three of Navalny’s lawyers and one of his fellow activists who stood trial alongside him — “the only people who had access to Navalny for the last three years of his life,” she said — remain in prison, as do hundreds of others sentenced for journalism, activism and truth-telling. Now that Russia has extracted its agents, the West has less to offer it in exchange for these hostages. Nor is it likely to try, if my conversations with Washington officials involved in this swap are any indication. For them the Russian dissidents were something of an afterthought, an addition forced by Grozev and Pevchikh — and, eventually, by Navalny’s death.

9 July
A Russian court orders the arrest of opposition leader Navalny’s widow, who lives abroad
(AP) A court in Russia ordered the arrest of the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny during a hearing Tuesday that was conducted in absentia as part of a sweeping Kremlin crackdown on the opposition.
Yulia Navalnaya, who lives abroad, would face arrest if and when she returns to Russia.
Moscow’s Basmanny District Court ruled to arrest Navalnaya on charges of alleged involvement in an extremist group

27 April
Putin Didn’t Directly Order Alexei Navalny’s February Death, U.S. Spy Agencies Find
The finding, which doesn’t absolve the Russian leader of ultimate responsibility, deepens the mystery surrounding the dissident’s death at an Arctic gulag
by WSJ’s Aruna Viswanatha, Dustin Volz, Warren Strobel, Alan Cullison and Thomas Grove:
U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin likely didn’t order [ALEXEI] NAVALNY to be killed at the notoriously brutal prison camp in February, people familiar with the matter said …. The assessment doesn’t dispute Putin’s culpability for Navalny’s death, but rather finds he probably didn’t order it at that moment.”
Politico Eu … Putin has denied any involvement in Navalny’s death. Last month, the Russian president said that he had agreed to swap the opposition leader in a prisoner exchange days before Navalny died, confirming claims made by a close Navalny ally that Russia and Western officials had negotiated a prisoner exchange deal.

11 April
Before He Died in Prison, Aleksei Navalny Wrote a Memoir. It’s Coming This Fall.
(NYT) In the book, Navalny tells his story in his own words, chronicling his life, his rise as an opposition leader, and the attempts on his life.
Titled “Patriot,” the memoir will be published in the United States by Knopf on Oct. 22, with a first printing of half a million copies, and a simultaneous release in multiple countries.
Posthumous memoir by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to be published Oct. 22
(AP) — A memoir Alexei Navalny began working on in 2020 will be published this fall. “Patriot” which publisher Alfred A. Knopf is calling the late Russian opposition leader’s “final letter to the world,” will come out Oct. 22.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said in a statement released Thursday by the publisher, “This book is a testament not only to Alexei’s life, but to his unwavering commitment to the fight against dictatorship—a fight he gave everything for, including his life. Through its pages, readers will come to know the man I loved deeply—a man of profound integrity and unyielding courage. Sharing his story will not only honor his memory but also inspire others to stand up for what is right and to never lose sight of the values that truly matter.”

29 March
Russian journalist who covered Navalny trials jailed on extremism charges
Antonina Favorskaya was detained after laying flowers on Alexei Navalny’s grave
(The Guardian) A Moscow court has ordered a Russian journalist who covered the trials of the late Russian opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, and other dissidents to remain in custody pending an investigation and trial on charges of extremism.
Antonina Favorskaya, also identified by court officials as Antonina Kravtsova, was arrested earlier this month. On Friday, Moscow’s Basmanny district court ordered that she remain in pre-trial detention at least until 28 May.
Russian journalist who covered Navalny’s trials is jailed in Moscow (AP video)

18 March
Putin speaks Navalny’s name for first time, claims he agreed to prisoner exchange
President says “some colleagues” proposed a deal several days before the opposition leader died in a Russian prison, “but unfortunately what happened, happened.”
(Politico Eu) Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly spoke Alexei Navalny’s name for the first time in years, claiming in a campaign victory press conference that he’d agreed to swap the opposition leader in a prisoner exchange days before he died in an Arctic jail.
Putin said at a press conference following his landslide win in the sham Russian election that “some colleagues” had proposed swapping Navalny several days before he died “for some people who are in prison in Western countries.” He said he agreed to the idea, as long as the opposition leader never returned to Russia, “But, unfortunately, what happened happened … It happens. What can you do? That’s life.”

6 March
Navalny’s widow calls for Russia election day gatherings on March 17 to show dismay with Putin
The widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison three weeks ago, called on his supporters on Wednesday to join a protest of this month’s presidential election that Navalny devised shortly before his still-unexplained death.
Yulia Navalnaya asked Russians opposed to President Vladimir Putin to get in line at voting stations on March 17, the last and main day of voting.
Putin is certain to win a fifth term in office, potentially extending his rule to 2030, in the election that includes only token opponents.
Navalnaya acknowledged that in a video message on X, formerly Twitter, saying “Putin will imagine any result that he likes, even 80, even 180%.”
But the gathering “will help millions of people see like-minded people and realize that we are not alone, we are surrounded by people who are also against war, against corruption and against lawlessness,” she said.

1 March
Navalny’s parents bury their son as thousands chant his name
Mourners chant ‘Navalny’ as coffin carried past
Church ringed by crash barriers, police
Parents kiss his face for last time
Rights group reports 45 arrests across Russia
(Reuters) Many thousands of people turned out to pay their respects at the cemetery and earlier outside the Soothe My Sorrows church in southeast Moscow where the funeral took place.
Among the large crowd, many people clutched bunches of flowers and some joined in a series of chants – “Russia will be free”, “No to war”, “Russia without Putin”, “We won’t forgive” and “Putin is a murderer”.
Police were present in large numbers but for the most part did not intervene. A rights group, OVD-Info, reported six people had been detained in Moscow and at least 39 in other parts of Russia.
Navalny’s funeral held amid tight security as Russians chant outside
(Reuters) An Orthodox priest presided over the short service, while outside, people queuing around the church who had been prevented from entering to say goodbye clapped and chanted “Navalny! Navalny!”.
After his coffin had been carried out, some people chanted “Russia will be free”, “No to war”, “Russia without Putin”, “We won’t forget” and “Putin is a murderer.”
There was heavy security at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God, an imposing white domed building in south-east Moscow where the service was held.
Navalny’s body was then driven to the Borisovskoye cemetery, around 2.5 km (1.5 miles) away on the other side of the Moskva River. The cemetery was sealed off with crash barriers.
More than a quarter of a million people watched the events on Navalny’s YouTube channel, which is blocked inside Russia. Messages, mostly expressing sadness but some also defiance, streamed down beside the video.
While Navalny’s mother Lyudmila, 69, attended the funeral along with his father Anatoly, his wife Yulia and two children, who are living outside Russia, did not attend.
From the grave, Navalny takes a last jab at Putin
Despite the risk of persecution, thousands publicly paid their last respects to the opposition leader in cities across Russia.
(Politico Eu) Even lying ashen-faced in a casket he managed to do what in today’s Russia seems impossible: draw thousands out onto the streets in an act of collective defiance unseen since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale war against Ukraine two years ago.
Massive crowds gather as Putin’s arch-rival is buried
if the Kremlin’s hope was that Navalny’s death would showcase its success in eradicating all opposition, it instead provided Russians with the ultimate motivation to emerge from hiding.
(Politico Eu) Huge crowds of Russians gathered Friday on a gray and freezing morning in Moscow for the funeral of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Among those in attendance on the outskirts of Moscow were Boris Nadezhdin, the anti-war candidate who was disqualified from running against Vladimir Putin in Russia’s presidential election this month, and Yevgeny Roizman, the former mayor of Yekaterinburg and a prominent Putin critic.
Several Western ambassadors were also spotted in live video footage, including the U.S., French and German envoys.

27-28 February
Alexei Navalny’s funeral to be held on Friday in Moscow
Russian opposition leader’s allies say Kremlin blocked bigger memorial and put them under pressure to hold closed service
Navalny to be buried on Friday, wife fears possible arrests
Navalny to be buried near where he used to live
Spokesperson tells people to get there early
Navalny allies say they wanted a bigger earlier event
Accuse authorities of blocking them
(Reuters) – Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s funeral service and burial will take place in Moscow on Friday, his wife Yulia announced, but she said she was unsure if it would pass off peacefully or whether police would arrest attendees.
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesperson, posted on X that a service for Navalny would be held on Friday afternoon in the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God in the Moscow district of Maryino where Navalny used to live
Navalny Associates Face Problems Finding Location To Bid Farewell To Kremlin Critic
Associates of late opposition politician Aleksei Navalny say they can’t find a location in the Russian capital that will allow them to organize a public farewell ceremony for the Kremlin critic after his mother said she was being blackmailed by officials to hold a secret commemoration.
“We have called the majority of private and state funeral agencies, commercial entities, and funeral halls. Some say the premises are booked, some refuse to talk after they hear Navalny’s name,” spokeswoman Kyra Yarmysh said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on February 27.

Navalny’s Former Lawyer Detained In Moscow After Helping Mother Press For Release Of Son’s Body
Russian media reports on February 27 said police detained late opposition politician Aleksei Navalny’s former lawyer, Vasily Dubkov, on unspecified charges. Dubkov accompanied Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, to the Arctic city of Salekhard last week while she was demanding to release her son’s body. The body was released to Navalnaya on February 24. Navalny’s three former lawyers — Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin, and Aleksei Lipster — were arrested in November on extremism charges. In mid-November, a Moscow court issued an arrest warrant for another former lawyer for Navalny, Olga Mikhailova, on extremism charges.

26 February
Navalny was close to being freed in prisoner swap, says ally
(Reuters) – Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was close to being freed in a prisoner swap at the time of his death, a close ally said on Monday, repeating an allegation by his family and supporters that President Vladimir Putin had him killed.
Speaking on YouTube, Maria Pevchikh said talks about exchanging Navalny and two unnamed U.S. nationals for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian FSB security service hit man in jail in Germany, were in their final stages at the time of his death.
Vadim Krasikov: who is Russian hitman linked to Navalny prisoner swap claim?
(The Guardian) Allies of Russian opposition leader say he was killed to thwart exchange with FSB colonel jailed in Germany

22-24 February
Alexei Navalny’s body handed over to family
“We do not know if the authorities will interfere” with the funeral for the deceased Russian opposition leader, Navalny’s spokeswoman said.
One week after the opposition politician’s death, his body still hasn’t been handed over to the family.
Navalny’s ‘tortured’ body handed over to his mother
(Reuters) – The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died unexpectedly in prison nine days ago, was handed to his mother on Saturday in the Arctic city of Salekhard, his spokeswoman said, though it was unclear what will happen next to the body.
In a video recorded before the release of the body, Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya accused “demonic” Putin of “torturing” the corpse of a political opponent.
Navalny’s allies urged supporters “not to relax” and his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, wrote on X there was no certainty that Russian authorities would let relatives hold a funeral “the way the family wants and the way Alexei deserves.”
… [Lyudmila Navalnaya] said an official had told her that she should agree to their demands, as Navalny’s body was already decomposing.
Russian state investigators threaten to bury Navalny in prison colony
(Politico Eu) One week after the opposition politician’s death, his body still hasn’t been handed over to the family.
Russian authorities called Alexei Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, and gave her an ultimatum: Agree to a secret funeral for her son or they will bury Navalny in the prison colony.
“Either she agrees to a secret funeral without a public farewell within three hours, or Alexei will be buried in a colony,” Navalny’s aide Ivan Zhdanov wrote on his Telegram channel.
Navalnaya refused to negotiate with the Investigative Committee and insists on a proper funeral. She demanded that the committee follow the rule of law.
22 February
Russia is blackmailing me, says Navalny’s mother
Lyudmila Navalnaya says authorities threatened to desecrate the body of the late Russian opposition leader.

21-22 February
Yulia Navalnaya once avoided the limelight. Now she’s Russia’s newest opposition leader
(AP) Navalny returned to Russia from Germany, analysts suggested, because he knew it would be difficult to be perceived as a legitimate opposition leader while abroad.
His widow is unlikely to travel to Russia because of security concerns and now faces a similar conundrum in figuring out how to lead her husband’s organization from exile.
On Friday, shortly after news of Navalny’s death broke, she met a woman in a similar situation — Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Tsikhanouskaya picked up the political baton from her husband, Belarusian opposition leader Siarhei Tsikhanouski, in 2020 after he was jailed in the run-up to Belarus’ presidential election.
She ran a successful campaign but fled Belarus after longtime President Alexander Lukashenko declared himself the winner in an election widely regarded in the West as fraudulent.

Imprisoned opposition figure Kara-Murza urges Russians not to give up after Navalny’s death
Imprisoned opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza on Thursday urged Russians not to give up after the death of Alexei Navalny, and he alleged a state-backed hit squad was taking out the Kremlin’s political opponents, according to a video posted to social media.
A British-Russian citizen, Kara-Murza is serving a 25-year sentence for treason at Penal Colony No. 7 in the Siberian city of Omsk. He comments came as he appeared via a video link in a court hearing over a complaint against Russia’s Investigative Committee for what he believes were two poisoning attempts against him. He alleges the committee didn’t properly investigate the attempts.
Kara-Murza is one of several opposition figures who have either been imprisoned, forced to flee the country or killed. He was convicted of criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and was handed a stiff sentence as part of a crackdown against critics of the war and freedom of speech.
Navalny was Russia’s highest-profile political prisoner. But there are more than 1,000 others
Vladimir Kara-Murza currently being held in Siberian penal colony, serving 25-year sentence for treason
(CBC) Just before Alexei Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila, posted a video to social media on Tuesday pleading with Russian authorities to let her see her son’s body, another clip began circulating from state media showing the arrest of the country’s latest political prisoner.
A 33-year-old Russian-U.S. dual national, who has been identified as Ksenia Khavana, was seen in handcuffs with a hat pulled over her eyes as she was led out of an apartment building in Yekaterinburg, a city 800 kilometres east of Moscow.
Khavana has been accused of treason and could face up to 20 years in prison. Her crime? A group of Russian lawyers say the Los Angeles resident donated $50 US to the Ukrainian war effort.

21 February
For many young Russians, dreams of democracy died with Alexei Navalny
(WaPo) As shared grief over Alexei Navalny’s death echoed across countless Russian émigré communities — in online chatrooms and encrypted messenger calls — many of the opposition leader’s young, idealistic followers described the same sinking feeling: Their dreams of a free, democratic Russia died with him, forcing many to redraw their life plans.
Over six days of shock and mourning, of flowers and candles brought to makeshift memorials in Russia and across the world, many said they felt deeply alone, left to fight President Vladimir Putin one-on-one with little hope of victory. For many already abroad, it means never going home; and for those still home, it means deciding whether to leave, once and for all.

A killing in Spain points to Russia and Putin’s sense of impunity
(WaPo) Russian pilot settled on the coast of Spain when he defected to Ukraine.
But the discovery of his bullet-riddled body last week appeared to deliver a menacing new signal from Moscow that those who cross the Kremlin — no matter how far they flee from the war’s front lines — should never consider themselves safe.
“It is a reminder for everyone who is in exile and actively in opposition to the regime — they are all on somebody’s list,” said Eugene Rumer, a former senior U.S. intelligence official who directs the Russia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
… In contrast to the intricate plots against Skripal and Navalny carried out by officers working directly for Russia’s intelligence services, the attack on Kuzminov in Spain more closely resembled a mob hit. The nature of the killing has prompted speculation that Russia has turned to criminal networks to compensate for its curtailed operational presence across Europe.
… He appears to have been living in Spain under a false identity and Ukrainian passport, presumably provided by Ukraine’s military intelligence service, the GUR, which touted his defection last year aboard an Mi-8 transport helicopter packed with valuable Russian jet components as a propaganda coup.

20 February
EU summons Russian envoy, demands independent investigation into Navalny’s death
(Reuters) – The European Union summoned Russia’s representative to the EU and called for an independent international investigation into the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the EU’s diplomatic service said on Tuesday.

Navalny’s mother tells Putin: Hand over my son’s body
(Reuters) – Lyudmila Navalnaya, the mother of dead Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, demanded on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin hand over her son’s body so she could bury him.
Speaking in a video filmed front of the prison as small snow flakes swirled in the air, his mother – dressed in black – complained she did not even know where her son’s corpse was and demanded Putin give the order to release it.

19 February
‘Stand Beside Me’: Navalny’s Widow Promises to Carry on His Work (video)
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, released a video on her late husband’s YouTube feed rallying his followers to continue his fight for a democratic and free Russia.
Yulia Navalnaya, Russia’s steely new opposition politician out to avenge husband’s death
(Reuters) – Before the shock death of her husband Alexei in a grim Arctic prison last week, Yulia Navalnaya had always played down the idea she would one day take over as leader of Russia’s opposition. But on Monday, she vowed to continue his fight.
In a video released three days after his death and less than a month before Russia’s next presidential election, the 47-year-old mother-of-two alternated between rage and grief as she signalled she would try to help lead a shell-shocked opposition.
For years she sought to avoid the limelight. Now Alexei Navalny’s widow is vowing to continue his fight.
Who is Yulia Navalnaya, Putin’s new enemy?
For years she sought to avoid the limelight. Now Alexei Navalny’s widow is vowing to continue his fight.
(Politico Eu) As many Russians were still reeling on Monday from the death of Alexei Navalny, they received news that could be of some comfort.
Three days after the Russian authorities declared the opposition politician had died in a prison north of the Arctic Circle, his wife Yulia Navalnaya on Monday said she would take up her husband’s mission to topple Vladimir Putin’s regime.
“By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me, half of my heart, and half of my soul. But I still have the other half, and it tells me that I have no right to give up,” she announced in a YouTube video. “I will continue Alexei Navalny’s cause.”
Yulia Navalnaya: the reluctant politician continuing her late husband’s work
The 47-year-old was a regular source of advice and support to Alexei Navalny but she expressed little interest in entering politics before his death.
… Yulia Navalnaya never sought the spotlight. But since Alexei died in a prison colony on Friday, she has stepped into it, announcing in a new video that she would “continue the work of Alexei Navalny. To continue to fight for our country. And I call on you to stand beside me.”
Allies and friends described her as a fierce supporter of her husband who had always resisted a public political life, but worked behind the scenes to support him and the political movement he built.
“We have discussed this with her many times – when Alexei was under house arrest or in jail,” said Sergei Guriev, a Professor of Economics at Sciences Po close to the Navalny family who has spoken with Yulia in recent days. “She would always say that having lived with a politician, she saw how dangerous and difficult this job is. And before she would always know that Alexei was alive and would be back.
“But this time around – as she has clearly explained in her statement – she had no choice.”

17-18 February
Navalny’s Death Shocked the World, but Will It Galvanize Opposition to Putin?
His death united world leaders and demonstrators in grief, but it also left Russia without a charismatic counterweight to its leader’s increasingly repressive policies.

Navalny’s spokesperson demands return of his body as she accuses Russian officials of ‘lying’
(CNN) The exact location of Navalny’s body remains unclear.
Navalny’s mother and lawyer flew to the penal colony where the Kremlin critic was being held on Saturday to receive official confirmation of his death, according to [his spokesperson Kira] Yarmysh.
“They waited for two hours, after which a colony employee came out to them and stated that the body of Alexey Navalny was in Salekhard [a nearby town], that investigators from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation had taken it now, and that they were now conducting an investigation on it,” Yarmysh said.

16-17 February
Putin Kills Off the Handsome Princes
In another country, Borya and Alyosha — the diminutives by which they were known to many — might have had their happy endings. They were the dashing princes, Putin the toad. But this story takes place in the land of the Tsars. Here the Tsar murders at will. His people are numbed to it — some bravely laid flowers Friday night at an impromptu memorial in Moscow, but we know too how this will end. Alyosha will be a memory, as is Borya. How will it end for Putin? The recent leader he resembles most, Stalin, died angry, ashen-faced and ailing, but in his own bed. It took over thirty years for any glimmers of optimism to emerge in Russia, in the 1980s with Gorbachev’s glasnost, openness, and the experiment with democracy in the 1990s, to be snuffed out with Putin’s ascendance in 2000. That’s not a happy thought. There aren’t any about Russia these days.
By Matthew Kaminski
(Politico) The last images of Alexei Navalny alive show him behind bars. … For a prisoner stuck in a camp above the Arctic Circle, he looks good — a strong man in whom you see the faintest of glimmers of optimism about his own and Russia’s future.
The other image that I dwelled on Friday shows Navalny and Boris Nemtsov. These two were the most prominent leaders of an inspired protest movement in the spring of 2012 that imagined a different kind of future for Russia. Borya is whispering impishly in Navalny’s ear, making him laugh. Both are handsome, tall, vigorous. The kind of men who turn heads.
Nemtsov was gunned down in February of 2015, at the foot of the Kremlin, a year into Vladimir Putin’s initial military assault on Ukraine. He was a youthful 55. Navalny died — no, let’s be honest here, was killed — on Friday, barely a week shy of the two-year anniversary of Putin’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. He was 47.
… these men challenged Putin in other ways he must have keenly felt. There was the youthfulness and energy. Nemtsov was born seven years after Putin but acted and looked as if he came from another generation; Navalny was the next generation. They had a sense of humor and color to their faces. They were optimistic. They didn’t seem cynical. They had nice hair, too, atop imposing frames. Did that hurt the balding Putin’s ego — so sensitive that, as the joke that happened to be a fact went, he found the one man in Dmitry Medvedev who’s shorter than himself to stand in as president in 2008-12 when Putin was term-limited out of that office.
Jeremy Kinsman: Navalny is Now Immortal, and Putin Has Never Been Weaker
Alexei Navalny’s murder — because that is what it is — will make of his example a precious national legend of bravery. The open secret of the personalized autocracy’s venality has now become a public truth.
(Policy Magazine) There was hope that one day Alexei Navalny would emerge from imprisonment, like Nelson Mandela, when the regime crumbled, to re-establish decency. Russians will now confront the reality that he will not be present when Russia inevitably overthrows their criminal regime. Their sadness and bitterness is combustible. Putin is very much weaker as of today.
Why Russia Killed Navalny
Even behind bars, the dissident leader was a threat to the corrupt Russian dictator.
By Anne Applebaum
(The Atlantic) Alexei Navalny returned to Russia in January 2021. Right before he boarded the plane, he posted a film titled “Putin’s Palace: The Story of the World’s Largest Bribe” on YouTube. The video, nearly two hours long, was an extraordinary feat of investigative reporting. Using secret plans, drone footage, 3-D visualizations, and the testimony of construction workers, Navalny’s video told the story of a hideous $1.3 billion Black Sea villa containing every luxury that a dictator could imagine: a hookah bar, a hockey rink, a helipad, a vineyard, an oyster farm, a church. The video also described the eye-watering costs and the financial trickery that had gone into the construction of the palace on behalf of its true owner, Vladimir Putin.
But the power of the film was not just in the pictures, or even in the descriptions of money spent. The power was in the style, the humor, and the Hollywood-level professionalism of the film, much of which was imparted by Navalny himself. This was his extraordinary gift: He could take the dry facts of kleptocracy—the numbers and statistics that usually bog down even the best financial journalists—and make them entertaining. On-screen, he was just an ordinary Russian, sometimes shocked by the scale of the graft, sometimes mocking the bad taste. He seemed real to other ordinary Russians, and he told stories that had relevance to their lives. You have bad roads and poor health care, he told Russians, because they have hockey rinks and hookah bars.
To date, that video has been viewed 129 million times.
The Russian prison system has said he collapsed after months of ill health. Perhaps he was murdered more directly, but the details don’t matter: The Russian state killed him. Putin killed him—because of his political success, because of his ability to reach people with the truth, and because of his talent for breaking through the fog of propaganda that now blinds his countrymen, and some of ours as well.

Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

16 February
Here’s What We Know About the Cause of Navalny’s Reported Death
The Russian authorities have issued sparse details of what they said happened to Aleksei A. Navalny, the opposition leader who they announced had died in prison.
Cause of death: In announcing Mr. Navalny’s death, Russia’s prison service said that he felt suddenly unwell during a walk. The medical workers who had arrived to attend to him in an ambulance had “performed all the required resuscitation procedures,” without success.
A doctor working near Mr. Navalny’s prison above the Arctic Circle told the independent Russian news outlet Mediazona that the closest ambulance team is 35 kilometers, or 22 miles, from the prison. By the time it would have arrived, a patient in severe distress would already be dead, said the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Who were they resuscitating?” he added.
President Biden said at a White House appearance that, “We don’t know exactly what happened, but there’s no doubt that the death of Navalny was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”

Yulia Navalnaya takes stage at Munich meeting after news of husband’s death
Wife of Alexei Navalny addresses hushed crowd of politicians and vows Putin will be brought to justice
A geopolitical conference turned deeply personal on Friday as senior officials from around the globe heard first-hand from Alexei Navalny’s wife hours after news broke of his reported death.
Yulia Navalnaya was in Germany for the Munich security conference, which brings together national leaders, foreign ministers and experts, when Russia’s prison service announced that Navalny had died in jail.
As officials at the conference were taking in the news, Navalnaya unexpectedly took to the stage, addressing a crowd of politicians and diplomats just after the US vice-president, Kamala Harris.

Alexei Navalny’s death: A deep tragedy for Russia
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden
It’s a deep tragedy primarily of course for his family. But I would argue even deeper for Russia because Alexei Navalny, he did represent the hope of very many Russians that there was something beyond this repressive, backward looking, imperial, nostalgic, aggressive regime that is now dragging Russia down.
I met him a number of times over the years. I was impressed by his bravery, how thoughtful he was, how determined he was in spite of the difficulties and the resistance that he was well aware of to pursue his vision. And he was firmly convinced that at some point in time, there will be another Russia, rule of the law, parliamentary, non-imperialistic.
And that the wave of young people that he inspired, was inspired till this day that they were going to carry that Russia forward. Now, things are different. We know that the regime tried to murder him before, ultimate responsibility for his death ultimately, irrespective of the facts, which we will never know, rests with the regime. But on this tragic day, let’s remember the hope that he represented and remember his conviction that sooner or later, for Russia, that hope can be turned into reality.

“A film is a weapon on time delay” — an interview with “Navalny” director Daniel Roher
Alex Kliment
I recently sat down with “Navalny” director to learn how the documentary got made, the geopolitical power of cinema, and what he hopes Putin will do if he ever sees the film.
(GZERO media) The Oscar-nominated documentary “Navalny” follows him and his team during those crucial months in Germany, as they uncover details of the assassination plot, pulling strings that reach into the highest levels of the Kremlin. It plays, remarkably, as a thriller, a black comedy, and an intimate family portrait.