Alexei Navalny is everything Vladimir Putin is not: courageous, charismatic, highly intelligent, witty and politically savvy. Little wonder that Russia’s charmless president cannot bring himself to utter the name of his nemesis. Instead, he pretends Navalny does not exist, while surreptitiously having him jailed, beaten, harassed and, in August, poisoned with a Salisbury-type chemical nerve agent. Putin denies doing this, of course. Does anyone really believe him?
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The Observer: Russia’s protests against Putinism
Protesters clash with riot police during a rally in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny in downtown Moscow on Jan. 23, 2021.
