Russian jurist and opposition leader (1976-2024)
Alexei Anatolievich Navalny (4 June 1976 – 16 February 2024) was a Russian opposition leader, dissident, lawyer, and anti-corruption activist. He came to international prominence by organizing anti-government demonstrations and running for office to advocate reforms against corruption in Russia, and against President Vladimir Putin and his government. Navalny was a Russian Opposition Coordination Council member, the leader of the Russia of the Future party and founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation. In August 2020, Navalny was hospitalized in serious condition after being poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. Navalny accused Putin of being responsible for his poisoning, and an investigation implicated agents from the Federal Security Service (FSB). The EU, UK and US responded by imposing sanctions on senior Russian officials. On 17 January 2021, Navalny returned to Russia and was detained on accusations of violating parole conditions because he had failed to report to Russia's Federal Prison Service (FSIN) twice per month during his illness. Following his arrest and the release of the documentary Putin's Palace, which accused Putin of corruption, mass protests were held across Russia. On 2 February, his suspended sentence was replaced with a prison sentence of over two and half years' detention in a corrective labour colony in Vladimir Oblast. While in prison, Navalny and human rights groups have accused Russian authorities of using torture against him. He is recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience. In October 2021, he was awarded the Sakharov Prize for his work on human rights.
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No one should be beaten. [Instead,] everything that bothers us should be carefully, but unyieldingly eliminated by means of deportation... A tooth without a root is considered dead. A nationalist is he who does not want the root ‘Russian’ to be deleted from the word ‘Russia.’ We have the right to be Russian in Russia and we will protect this right.
What are the chances that I'll survive this morning? I don't know; six out of ten? Eight out of ten? Maybe even ten out of ten? It's not that I'm trying not to think about it, closing my eyes and pretending the danger doesn't exist. But one day I simply made the decision not to be afraid. I weighed everything up, understood where I stand – and let it go.
Russian: Какие шансы у меня выжить сегодня утром? Не знаю: шесть из десяти или восемь из десяти. А может, и все десять. Дело не в том, что я стараюсь об этом не думать, зажмуриваюсь и делаю вид, что опасности не существует, – просто однажды я принял решение не бояться. Я всё взвесил, понял и отпустил.