Will Navalny’s gamble backfire?

For years, Alexei Navalny had been – barely – tolerated by a Kremlin that was willing to permit very limited opposition and criticism. When security officers tried to poison him last year, it reflected a distinct swing towards more ruthless authoritarianism. Back in Russia, and back in prison, Navalny likewise seems to have taken off the gloves.

Until now, everyone was fair game for Navalny’s investigations into official corruption – except for Vladimir Putin and his family. Yesterday, after Navalny had been sent to Moscow’s notorious Matrosskaya Tishina prison until his next trial date in February, his team released their latest investigation. In a characteristically slick and entertaining video, almost two hours long, the corrupt schemes which allowed Putin to build himself ‘the most expensive palace in the world’ at Gelendzhik on the Black Sea coast are laid bare.

So too is the extravagance of the palace, a place of such monumentally bad taste that one could imagine even Donald Trump feeling it goes a little too far.