Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

The Kremlin is still afraid of Alexei Navalny

Credit: Getty Images

As Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is once again in court, facing charges that could extend his time in prison by 30 or more years, he is showing that he is not giving up his uneven but unyielding challenge to the Putin regime.

When Navalny returned to Russia in January 2021 after recovering from a government attempt to poison him, it was to no one’s surprise that he was immediately arrested and sent to prison for nine years on spurious parole violation charges (which included the surreal accusation that he was in breach for not reporting to the police while he was in a coma). Since then, he has faced an escalating campaign of pressure, being repeatedly sent into solitary and punishment cells, sometimes simply for not buttoning his prison uniform correctly. In the brief period before the judge ruled that his latest trial would be held in camera, he was looking noticeably emaciated.

Mark Galeotti
Written by
Mark Galeotti

Mark Galeotti heads the consultancy Mayak Intelligence and is honorary professor at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies and the author of some 30 books on Russia. His latest, Forged in War: a military history of Russia from its beginnings to today, is out now.

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