Politico: Alexei Navalny, Russian dissident in winter By POLITICO. Published Feb. 8, 2016 at 8:46 am Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny speaks during a rally in Lyublino, a suburb of Moscow, on September 20, 2015. Photo by AFP Around this time in 2012, Alexei Navalny represented the most serious threat to the Kremlin in years. Read here.