News broke on February 16, 2024 that Alexey Navalny had died in prison. The politician’s inner circle and most independent media outlets believe that he was murdered. Meduza commemorates Navalny’s transformation from a young Moscow activist and anti-corruption blogger into the main figure in the Russian opposition and one of the most famous politicians in the world.
Alexey Navalny got invovled in activism in 2000. He joined the liberal Yabloko party and formed the Committee for the Defense of Muscovites. He also ran for a seat on the Moscow City Duma. When he was expelled from Yabloko in 2007 for “nationalist activities,” he founded the Narod (People) Movement.
Oleg Kozyrev / WIkimedia Commons
In 2009, Navalny began to focus on corruption. He started publishing investigations into government corruption on LiveJournal, and launched the Rospil movement, which united activists fighting government grift. As he gained popularity, Navalny urged Russians to vote for anyone but United Russia, Putin’s party, which he called “the party of swindlers and thieves.” In the 2011 election, United Russia received nearly 50 percent of votes amid allegations of massive fraud. Navalny rallied thousands of people to the largest protests Moscow had seen in many years. December 5, 2011.
Gennady Gulyaev / Kommersant
The rally on December 5 spontaneously turned into a march to the Central Election Commission building. Police arrested more than 300 activists, including Navalny. Navalny (right) and another activist look out onto the street from their cell, December 12, 2011.
Evgeny Feldman
Because he was arrested, Navalny missed the first big rally of the “winter of protests,” but he spoke at the next rally to around 100,000 people. From the stage, he said, “There are enough people here to take both the Kremlin and the White House [the main offices of Russia’s national government] right now, but we are peaceful people and we won’t…yet.” His speech that day became one of the most famous in modern Russia.
Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP / Scanpix / LETA
After the failure of the “Snow Revolution” in the winter of 2011-12 and Putin’s 2012 victory, the city of Astrakhan became an unexpected center of opposition when local politican Oleg Shein lost his bid for mayor due to election fraud. Shein started a 30-day hunger strike, which he ended after Navalny led an unplanned 7,000 person march through downtown Astrakhan in support of the local politician. Shein lost his election bid in court, but United Russia was convicted of corruption. April 14, 2012.
Evgeny Feldman
The final protest of that season was the March of Millions on May 6, 2012, the day before Putin’s inauguration. Moscow police set up a bottleneck along the march route and protest leaders responded by calling for the tens of thousands of marchers to sit down. Clashes with police began. That evening, protesters were charged with mass rioting.
Evgeny Feldman
Protesters continued to fight police after the March of Millions was broken up. Activists tried to get as close as possible to the inaugural motorcade, and security forces cleared and blocked off entire streets in the capital. Navalny and another activist proposed that protesters continue in a “flowing protest,” continuous round-the-clock actions with constant motion along any available streets and squares. Navalny was arrested several times during that period — this photo shows him sitting in a police van near the TASS state news agency building. May 8, 2012.
Evgeny Feldman
Navalny’s apartment after a police raid on June 11, 2012. Security forces searched the apartments of many prominent figures they believed to be involved in that winter’s unrest.
Evgeny Feldman
In autumn 2012, the opposition attempted to formalize its structures and organized elections to the Opposition Coordinating Council. Navalny won those elections, receiving more than 43,000 votes. The photo shows Navalny, opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, and journalist Oleg Kashin at a televised viewing of candidate debates, October 12, 2012.
Evgeny Feldman
Navalny on October 21, 2012, on a picket line stretching from the FSB building to Russia’s Investigative Committee headquarters. His sign reads, “I am against repression and torture.” The protest was a response to the arrest of Russian opposition politician Leonid Razvozhaev in Kyiv. Razvozzhayev was extradited to Russia and sent to pre-trial detention. At his court hearing, he managed to disclose that he had been tortured. He was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
Evgeny Feldman
Alexey and Yulia Navalny at a rally in support of people taken prisoner during the winter 2011–12 protests. March 6, 2013.
Evgeny Feldman
When Navalny became the generally accepted leader of the Russian opposition, the Investigative Committee opened various criminal cases against him. The first case went to court in mid-2013. Navalny and a businessman from Kirov, Pyotr Ofitserov, were accused of embezzlement on charges that Navalny and his supporters said were trumped up. Ofitserov refused to testify against Navalny. Both men were found guilty and sentenced to four and five years in prison, respectively. After the verdict was announced, guards removed the defendants from the courthouse. July 18, 2013.
Evgeny Feldman
In summer 2013, Navalny ran against Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin, who was ultimately re-elected. Immediately after Navalny was sentenced in the embezzlement case, his campaign headquarters announced that they would be suspending the mayoral campaign and called instead for voters to boycott the election. Spontaneous protests erupted in Moscow. After a few hours, prosecutors unexpectedly demanded that the court release Navalny and Ofitserov until their appeals could be reviewed. Navalny and Ofitserov were released in the Kirov Regional Court on July 19, 2013.
Evgeny Feldman
Navalny and Ofitserov (on the left) meet hundreds of supporters at Moscow’s Yaroslavsky Station, July 20, 2013
Grigory Dukor / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
The mayoral election was scheduled for September 8, and Navalny campaigned all summer. He collected small donations, sent thousands of volunteers out to picket throughout the city, and spoke at dozens of rallies, many of which ended with long autograph sessions. August 21, 2013.
Evgeny Feldman
Navalny got 632,000 votes in the election for Moscow mayor — 27.2 percent of total votes. The incumbent, Sobyanin, got 51.37 percent, barely avoiding a runoff. Navalny’s team recorded a large number of election violations, but at a protest following the elections they didn’t call on their supporters to protest in the streets. September 9, 2013.
Evgeny Feldman
The second case against Navalny went to court in late 2014. At that point, the politician had spent nearly a year under house arrest. The prosecution claimed that Alexey and his brother Oleg Navalny were laundering money through the cosmetics company Yves Rocher East. Oleg maintained that he was engaged in normal business practices, and Alexey insisted that he had nothing to do with the company at all. The court that heard the case handed down what was probably the most severe sentence possible: Alexey received a suspended sentence, and Oleg was sent to prison for three and a half years. December 30, 2014.
Evgeny Feldman
Initially, the verdict in the Yves Rocher case was scheduled to be announced on January 15, 2015. Navalny supporters announced a large unsanctioned protest on Moscow’s Manezhnaya Square. The Russian authorities began blocking online information about the protest — activists moved the rally to December 30. Navalny violated his house arrest and traveled to downtown Moscow, but the last-minute protest attracted only a few hundred participants.
Evgeny Prigozhin
In the summer of 2015, Navalny tried to organize a new opposition coalition with Mikhail Kasyanov of the Parnas party and Mikhail Khodorkovsky of Open Russia. The coalition’s first goal was to win parliamentary elections in several Russian regions, but the opposition candidates were allowed on the ballot in only one region, and only a few weeks before elections. Navalny held a few rallies in the region, but the opposition lost, receiving just over 2 percent of the vote. The photograph shows Navalny and his associate, Leonid Volkov, doing campaign business at a roadside restaurant, September 4, 2015.
Evgeny Feldman
The first protest after Boris Nemtsov was murdered in February 2015 and the opposition lost in Kostroma. From the stage, Navalny spoke about patience: “We are few, but our children and our grandchildren will hold us up as an example!” September 20, 2015.
Evgeny Feldman
During that entire period, the Russian authorities continued stepping up pressure on Navalny. On January 16, 2015, he was detained while exiting his building and taken in for questioning. His Anti-Corruption Foundation was searched and all its technology was seized. The authorities said the foundation was using donations illegally.
Evgeny Feldman
In November 2016, Navalny announced that he would run in the 2018 presidential election, a decision made possible when the European Court of Human Rights reversed the decision in the embezzlement case against him. The Russian authorities quickly initiated another case on exactly the same charges. Alexey Navalny and Pyotr Ofitserov in Kirov, December 5, 2016.
Evgeny Feldman
Despite the new case against him, Navalny launched his presidential campaign in January 2017, touring Russia. On February 4, he opened his first campaign headquarters, in St. Petersburg.
Evgeny Feldman
Alexey and Yulia Navalny ahead of a meeting with volunteers at their campaign headquarters in Yekaterinburg, February 25, 2017
Evgeny Feldman
Navalny and his associates were constantly followed by provocateurs. At a railway station in Ufa, a group of young people threw eggs at the politician; in Volgograd, they tried to beat him up. The police rarely interfered. Ufa, March 5, 2017.
Evgeny Feldman
On April 27, 2017 Alexey Navalny was doused with brilliant green in Moscow for the second time during his campaign. His eye was seriously injured. Navalny blamed the Russian presidential administration for the attack. One of the attackers was identified as an activist with the SERB radical patriotic movement.
Evgeny Feldman
In early March 2017, Navalny released a high-profile investigation into Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s corruption. The resulting video had tens of millions of views. Navalny HQ argued about the campaign’s long-term strategy, while Navalny convinced his supporters to hold an “all-Russia” protest. More than 100,000, largely young people, turned out. Navalny was arrested in Moscow. Protesters tried to block the road for the police van by pushing parked cars into the street. March 26, 2017.
Evgeny Feldman
Police escort the Navalny family away from a protest in Moscow, May 14, 2017
Evgeny Feldman
Despite constant arrests, attacks, and administrative pressure, Navalny’s campaign attracted more and more attention. Hundreds attended meetings for volunteers. Izhevsk, June 10, 2017.
Evgeny Feldman
Navalny at the Tver railway station, between speeches on a campaign trip, May 29, 2017.
Evgeny Feldman
Navalny disliked public appearances — he could never eat beforehand and would be famished afterward. August 29, 2017.
Evgeny Feldman
In autumn 2017, Navalny started to hold public rallies in cities around Russia, which attracted thousands of people — they were the largest protests in the history of a number of cities. Khabarovsk, September 24, 2017.
Evgeny Feldman
In each city, Navalny tried to see a local attraction that his volunteers suggested. In Arkhangelsk, he visited some old wooden barracks.
Evgeny Feldman
In the middle of autumn, the authorities started denying the Navalny campaign permits for its rallies, though activists submitted hundreds of applications across Russia every week. In Samara, the rally was disrupted by a belly dancing championship, whose music was intended to drown out the events on the city’s main square. Navalny pulled the speakers’ power cords and climbed onto one of them to deliver a speech. December 3, 2017.
Evgeny Feldman
Navalny’s campaign staff hoped to make him so popular that the Central Election Commission would have to register him as a candidate despite the criminal cases against him. Officials summoned Navalny the day after he submitted his documents to run for president. He went to the meeting knowing that his application would inevitably be refused. December 25, 2017.
Evgeny Feldman
Oleg Navalny was released from prison in summer 2018. Alexey went to meet him. June 29, 2018.
Evgeny Feldman
Police detain Alexey Navalny at a protest in support of Meduza journalist Ivan Golunov. June 12, 2019.
Evgeny Feldman
In 2019, Navalny and his supporters tried to get him elected to the Moscow City Duma, however the authorities did not allow independent candidates to run and protests were violently dispersed, though this only drew more attention to the campaign. Navalny introduced “smart voting,” a strategy in which opposition activists would support the strongest candidate from any party other than United Russia. As a result, United Russia barely won a majority of seats in the Moscow City Duma, but the resulting crackdown led to the criminal prosecution of dozens of protesters.
Sefa Karacan / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
The authorities increasingly placed Navalny and his associates under arrest. Raids sometimes took place simultaneously in dozens of Anti-Corruption Foundation locations across dozens of cities. On December 26, 2019, security services visited the Moscow location again because of a criminal case concerning the foundation’s investigation of Medvedev, which they refused to delete despite a court order.
Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP / Scanpix / LETA
Navalny tried not to miss marches in memory of Boris Nemstov. In 2020, a rally took place on February 29, just before the start of the pandemic. It was the last organized protest in Moscow for many years, and the last one in which Navalny would participate.
Yuriy Martyanov / Kommersant / SIPA USA / Vida Press
In summer 2020, Alexey Navalny went on a campaign trip around Siberia, planning “smart voting” for the upcoming regional elections. He became ill on the plane ride from Tomsk to Moscow. He was sent to intensive care after an emergency landing in Omsk. August 22, 2022.
Alexey Malgavko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Two days later, the Russian authorities and doctors agreed to Navalny’s family’s requests that he be taken to Germany for treatment. In Europe, traces of Novichok poison were found in Navalny’s work-up. A later investigation revealed that the politician had been poisoned by the FSB.
Alexey Navalny’s Press Service / AP / Scanpix / LETA
Navalny emerged from a coma after two weeks. On September 15, 2022, his family posted the first photo from the hospital.
@navalny / Instagram / AFP / Scanpix / LETA
In late December 2020, Navalny published a video of his conversation with the head of the poisoning treatment team. By that point, the politician had spent three months in intensive care in Germany. The Russia authorities said that his treatment was an attempt to escape the Yves Rocher criminal case. Despite the threat of arrest, Navalny announced in January 2021 that he would return to Russia. He later said that he had no doubts about returning: he couldn’t imagine life in exile. January 17, 2021.
Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP / Scanpix / LETA
Navalny was arrested immediately upon arrival at the airport and sent to pre-trial detention. The next day, his team published an investigation into Putin’s real estate.
Evgeny Feldman / Meduza
On February 2 2021, a Moscow court replaced Alexey Navalny’s suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case with a real one. The politician was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison. From the hearing, Navalny made a sign to his wife.
Moscow City Court Press Service / AFP / Scanpix / LETA
After that, Navalny appeared publicly only via video link during court hearings. On December 28, he appeared in court with a complaint about the conditions in prison. This hearing, like others, ended with a decision in favor of the prison.
Evgeny Feldman / Meduza
In February 2022, a new trial against Navalny began and it was conducted in prison. The politician was charged with contempt of court and fraud and sentenced to another nine years in prison. A still from a video showing Alexey and Yulia, February 15, 2022.
Yuriy Kochetkov / EPA / Scanpix / LETA
Prison employees continually found reasons to send Navalny to a punishment cell — solitary confinement in especially harsh conditions. Continuous detention in a punishment cell amounts to torture. Oleg Navalny built a replica of a punishment cell and exhibited it in various European cities, trying to draw attention to his brother’s plight. Berlin, February 15, 2023.
Evgeny Feldman / Meduza
Navalny was imprisoned shortly after recovering from severe poisoning and his health caused great concern among doctors. They appealed more than once to Russia’s leadership to stop mistreating the politician. Navalny was denied appropriate medical care, and in December 2023, he was transferred to a prison in the arctic region. Immediately after quarantine, Navalny was sent to a punishment cell. He spent a total of 295 days in isolation.
Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
In early January 2024, Russia’s Supreme Court rejected two lawsuits from Navalny in which he demanded that restrictions be lifted on the number of books and time to eat he was allowed. On January 11, Navalny appeared in court via video link. This is one of the last photographs of him.
Maxim Shemetov / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Evgeny Feldman