Navalny showed there is a better Russia

Everything was angular about him: his brilliant smile, the choppy movements of his hands as he spoke, the western mannerisms he had picked up abroad at Yale. But it was the smile that really stood out. Alexei Navalny didn’t know me, probably didn’t trust me, but his smile was a signal of trust – an open sincerity I’d never seen among Russian politicians. It was the kind of trust that comes from an inner self-confidence, the belief that his country’s laws are for him and for the people, and most of all, the belief in solutions.

As a reporter in Russia, it was not the only time I had seen or spoken to him, but when I learned of his death, it was that memory in particular that broke my heart. It was April 2012, the height of the anti-Kremlin protest movement that would prove the biggest in Vladimir Putin’s 24-year reign. Navalny, a lawyer and anti-corruption blogger, had emerged as the leader of the opposition.