Russians feel bleaker than ever after Alexei Navalny’s death

The news about Alexei Navalny’s death came as a shock to anti-Putin Russians like myself – he’d been a central figure of opposition in Russia for more than 15 years. Yet in other ways, not a surprise at all – for three years he’d been in the claws of a regime with a long-established history of getting rid of its better-known opponents. Navalny himself was realistic about his chances, saying in court he was ‘under the total control of men who adore applying chemical weapons to everything, and no one would bet three kopecks on my life now.’

But still, with Navalny you held onto the irrational hope it might turn out differently. After surviving that attempt on his life in 2020, he had an almost Harry Potterish ‘Boy That Lived’ aura of ultimate triumph which seems cruelly ironic now. Of course, for those hostile or indifferent to him, his death only bore out their deepest conviction: whatever you do in life, don’t cross the authorities.