Alexei Navalny

Alexei Navalny    (lawyer, activist, politician, political operative)
Born	Alexei Anatolievich Navalny 1976-06-04 Butyn, Odintsovsky District, Moscow Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	16-02-2024 (Age 47) Kharp, Russia
Nationality	Russian
Alma mater	Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, Finance University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Yale University
Criminal charge	Violating parole, fraud
Criminal status	Inprisoned
Children	Daria and Zakhar
Spouse	Yulia Navalnaya
Exposed	Russia/Deep State
Member of	World Fellows Program/2010
Victim of	Premature Death
Interests	• Vladimir Putin • Dmitry Medvedev
Interest of	Vladimir Ashurkov, Lucy Komisar
Party	Russia of the Future, (2018–present), Progress Party, (2013–2018), Yabloko, (2000–2007)
Russian politician designated "leader of the opposition" by Western corporate media, despite not leading the biggest opposition party. Mystery income stream, mystery decidedly non-deadly "poisoning" incident in 2020. Died in prison of "sudden death syndrome".  Party Leader In office 19 May 2018 - Present Employer Russia of the Future

Alexei Navalny was a Russian political figure who started to style himself as anti-corruption activist at one point. He was the leader of the opposition Russia of the Future party and became a tough critic of Vladimir Putin and Russia's oligarchs in his later political life. After receiving a prison sentence of of over 2.5 for having violated his parole in 2021, that sentence was extended to nine and later 19 years for other charges. When the initial sentence was handed down, Navalny was placed in a penitentiary close to Moscow, in 2023 he was transferred for undisclosed reasons to a former West-Siberian Gulag known for it's harsh conditions, where he was reported to have died a year later.

Early life

Navalny is of Russian and Ukrainian descent. His home village of Zalissia near the Belarusian border was evacuated due to the Chernobyl Disaster. Navalny grew up in Obninsk, about 60 miles southwest of Moscow, traveling back and forth to Ukraine as well, acquiring proficiency in the Ukrainian language. Navalny graduated from the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia in 1998 with a law degree and one in securities and exchanges at the Financial University of the Russian Federation in 2001.

Political career

He aligned himself with political parties opposing Vladimir Putin's sudden rise helped by Boris Yeltsin. In the 2000s, Navalny first gained prominence with his Yabloko party and started current affairs debates with his youth movement "DA! – Democratic Alternative". His TV shows were removed and cancelled from broadcasting, due to "interference" from Russian officials according to Navalny.

In 2011 he got a favorable article by openDemocracy, indicating that by that time he was favored by the American political establishment. Time included him in the list of "The 100 Most Influential People in the World" of 2012.

"Nationalist views"

His racist remarks early on in his career (comparing immigrants to cockroaches) are often downplayed as "nationalistic views" or just omitted by western commercially-controlled media, while things of this sort could exclude somebody from positive reporting. In 2021 Amnesty International removed his status as prisoner of conscience after it was "bombarded with complaints highlighting xenophobic comments that he has made in the past and not renounced". Since about 20% of Russia's population is an ethnic minority, he is most likely not well regarded by a sizable portion of the citizenry.

"Soros funding"

In August 2016, the DC Leaks website published documents, allegedly from the Open Society Foundation, that pointed pointed to a strategy of influencing politics around the globe. In one of the documents Alexei Navalny is mentioned as collaborating in one of their projects. Navalny denied receiving funding from Soros, Foreign Policy Magazine wrote that the documents were edited by a Russian hacker group (Cyber Berkut) and a spokesperson from Open Society said the foundation has never supported Navalny and that the edited documents amounted to a libelous claim.

British intelligence funding

Vladimir Ashurkov is a political associate of Navalny and also executive director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). In November 2018, hackers of the Anonymous group published documents of the British project Integrity Initiative; among others, Ashurkov's surname appeared in the lists of participants. In the early 2010s, Ashurkov also was filmed by Russian intelligence asking for money and support from the British embassy in Moscow. In the film, released on RT in 2021, Ashurkov stated "If we had more money, we would expand our team, of course," adding that his goal of obtaining “a little money” like “10, 20 million dollars a year" would make a huge difference. "And this is not a big amount of money for people who have billions at stake".

Protests

How Alexei Navalny became Putin's greatest threat, VOX - A CCM short introduction on how Navalny has become known in Russia and in the West.

The 2010s had Navalny full of attempts at getting in power in Moscow or the Kremlin, he lost all elections running for Mayor, parliament or regional offices, often arguing he was blocked, his views suppressed and the elections ballots tampered with. Navalny gained endorsements from the Council of Europe, Human Rights Watch, The Economist and Freedom House as the most viable contender to Vladimir Putin in Russian elections.

In February 2018 he was "briefly detained" by the Russian government for organizing anti-government protests ahead of the country's presidential election from which he had been banned. Navalny first gained prominence in English CCM after his first public arrest after the 2011 Russian legislative election and 2011–2013 Russian protests. In particular, Navalny was arrested after claiming the former to have been full of election fraud.

Navalny was jailed and helped fuel the 2010s protests that would last 2 years. After uploading his former blog in English as well and criticizing Vladimir Putin's attempt at seizing a second term, Navalny received attention in several international media such as The Guardian and BBC After subsequent arrests, and setting off a protest for another year into 2013, Navalny was jailed again.

Further attempts at competing in Russian elections after the 2014 Ukraine coup faced a hack and release of his personal data, a blockage by Russian election committees, the suspicious assassination of winners that tried to work with Navalny (such as Boris Nemtsov), and a series of chemical attacks that caused him to lose ~80% of sight in one of his eyes.

"Putin's greatest threat"

Corporate media has mentioned Navalny sometimes as a great threat to Putin's rule. But political dissidents in Russia judge his base of support (liberal) at about 15% which is far too low to have rivaled Putin in politics; polls from 2017 show that approximately half of the Russian population does not know who he is. The strong divide between his significance in Russia and the media attention he has been given outside of Russia since at least 2012, in addition to his closeness to US funded activities would suggest, that he could have been used as the public face (through his protests) of a regime change operation in Russia.

Poisoned

In August 2020, Alexei Navalny was hospitalized in a serious condition after his tea was allegedly poisoned before his flight from Siberia to Moscow. During the flight, he became violently ill and was taken to a hospital in Omsk after an emergency landing there, and put in a coma. He was evacuated to a hospital in Germany two days later where he remains in intensive care.

On 26 August 2020, Boris Johnson tweeted:

"The poisoning of Alexei Navalny shocked the world. The UK stands in solidarity with him & his family. We need a full, transparent investigation into what happened. The perpetrators must be held accountable & the UK will join international efforts to ensure justice is done."

Johnson’s statement follows similar calls from Germany, France and Norway. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that if reports about Navalny’s poisoning “prove accurate, the United States supports the European Union’s call for a comprehensive investigation and stands ready to assist in that effort.”

On 2 September 2020, German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the apparent poisoning of Alexei Navalny as "an attempted murder with nerve agent" after a toxicology test in Germany showed that the opposition leader had been targeted with Novichok. Merkel said the case raises "very serious questions that only the Russian government can answer and must answer." She said Berlin will now confer with its EU and NATO partners to discuss an appropriate reaction to the incident, as well as notifying the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) as to the findings.

Documentaries

Navalny

The Oscar winning documentary about him, Navalny, was produced by HBO Max and CNN Films, and had much of it's research done by Christo Grozev, a journalist connected to Bellingcat, a supposedly amateur run and independent journalistic group that focuses on OSINT analyses. Grozev himself worked on their investigations into the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

Documentary about "Putin's palace"

Navalny uploaded a letter he send to the Russian court after his last conviction calling out the Russian Deep State.

Navalny, while recovering from his "poisoning" in the Black Forest region of Germany doing winter hikes with his wife, he made a documentary that received 42 million clicks in less than 24 hours.

The story that Navalny tells in his film is that Putin built a massive palace on the Black Sea coast for the equivalent of more than a billion euros, financed from public funds that the president allegedly uses for his private addiction to luxury and pomp. The site 39 times the size of the Principality of Monaco, claims Navalny in his film. The film uses computer generated images images of lavish casino-like rooms, and a swimming pool with a computer-manipulated image of President Putin.

When Russian TV gained access to the site to check the luxury claims, they showed the site was an empty shell still under construction

The film was produced by a production company in Los Angeles/California, a professional film and television studio that meets international standards, managed by Nina Gwyn Weiland and Sebastian Weiland, who have worked in the film industry in the USA for many years and have set up their studio operations in the Black Forest, just in time for Navalny.

Imprisonment and death

• 17 January 2021, Navalny returned to Russia from Germany, where he was immediately detained on accusations of violating parole conditions in a fraud case regarding a cosmetic brand.
• 2 February 2021, his suspended sentence was replaced with a prison sentence, meaning he would spend two and half years in a penal colony, which was later extended to 19 years.
• 16 February 2024, TASS and the Kremlin reported Navalny's death in prison, his family accusing the Russian government of murder.
• 25 February 2024, Kyrylo Budanov, a high ranking Ukrainian spook, said that Navalny died of detached blood clot.

On the occurrence of his death, Scott Ritter published the article: "The Tragic Death of a Traitor", a biography of Alexei Navalny.

Biden mourns

Navalny's official channel released a statement filming protests, mourning and arrests at gatherings remembering him throughout Russia. Navalny his final message to his supporters is also included. (Subtitles available)

On 17 February 2024, Neil Oliver posted on X:

“Biden mourned Navalny’s death. ‘Even in prison he was a powerful voice for the truth’, he said.

"An interesting statement while journalist Julian Assange, who published truth inconvenient to the US and the West currently rots inside Belmarsh High Security prison while he fights extradition to the US.”

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Navalny, Ukraine and the West	article	18 September 2020	'Rhys James'	A tongue-in-cheek, mildly satirical commentary on the latest "Vladimir Putin poisoned my cat" Novichok nonsense emanating from the Westerm media over the September 2020 hospitalisation of Russian 'opposition politician' and Western super-hero Alexei Navalny
Document:Novichok, Navalny, Nordstream, Nonsense	blog post	3 September 2020	Craig Murray	The US and Saudi Arabia have every reason to instigate a split between Germany and Russia at this time. Navalny is certainly a victim of international politics. That he is a victim of Putin I tend to doubt.

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