Thursday, Alexei Navalni, a 44-year-old lawyer, was admitted to intensive care at a hospital in Siberia, victim of possible poisoning, depending on your environment. The opponent felt bad when he was on a plane back to Moscow and the aircraft had to make an emergency landing in Omsk due to its rapidly deteriorating state of health.
Ignored by the national media, without representation in Parliament and without the possibility of running as a candidate following a conviction for tax fraud that he denounces as politics, it still resists as the most powerful voice of the Russian opposition.
Its broadcasts broadcast on YouTube -where he has more than four million followers- they are very popular and his investigations into the corruption of the elites add up to tens of millions of views, especially among young people.
The opponent and his Fund to Fight Corruption (FBK), created in 2012, are still in the sights of the authorities. In recent months, the FBK has had several fines, its premises have been searched multiple times and its assets frozen.
Spin hits
For the opponent, it is retaliation for having organized a protest movement in 2019, before the elections in Moscow. Navalni recently expressed support for the demonstrations in Jabarovsk, in the Russian Far East, where thousands of people gathered almost daily to protest the arrest of a former governor, an opponent of the ruling United Russia party. In 2017 and 2018, the year of the presidential election, Navalni has already managed to gather tens of thousands of young people from all over Russia.
With his organization, he relies on this segment of the population, the weak point of Putin’s electorate and the party in power, which he calls the “party of thieves and swindlers.” Tireless, Navalni, a tall blond with blue eyes, multiplies the blows of effect by facing the untouchables. Thus, he sued the attorney general, Yuri Chaika, Vladimir Putin, and publishes on his blog revelations about the hidden assets of those close to power, whom he accuses of corruption.
Passed by liberal opposition party Yabloko, from which he was expelled in 2007 for his nationalist positions, but has never stopped questioning Putin’s legitimacy.
Since 2007, the lawyer has fought the government by buying shares in semi-public groups, such as the oil company Rosneft and the gas giant Gazprom. Relying on its status as a minority shareholder, it demands transparency in the accounts.
Navalni gained notoriety in the legislative elections of December 2011, which generated a wave of protests and in which the lawyer stood out for his charisma and the virulence of his attacks against the Kremlin.
In September 2013 he obtained his first electoral success in the municipal elections of Moscow. He was surprising when he came second, with 27.2% of the vote, just behind the outgoing mayor, Putin’s former chief of staff, Sergei Sobianin, a result that confirmed him as a key figure in the opposition.
Part of life
Navalni has also participated in demonstrations with racist overtones, such as the Russian March. However, in recent years he has moved away from these movements and has progressively erased the nationalist tone of his speeches.
Since 2013, this father of two children has been sentenced to suspended prison terms for two cases of diversion of funds that he calls politicians and which led to the rejection of his candidacy until 2028. He also went to prison on several occasions for infractions of the law. legislation on demonstrations.
He has always rejected his court convictions and assures that nothing can diminish his motivation, not even threats against his safety and that of his family.
“I have been in politics for a long time, I am often arrested […], It’s part of life”, relativizes. “I do the work I prefer, people support me, I have many supporters. What can make a man happier?”
(Information from AFP)
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