Alexei Navalny was a Russian lawyer, opposition leader, and anti-corruption activist; on 16 February, he died. Navalny was one of the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponents. Navalny was imprisoned in a special regime penal colony near the Arctic Circle on charges of “extremism” (the holding of extreme political views) on a 19-year prison sentence. According to Russian accounts, Navalry went on a walk but later felt unwell and collapsed. 

 Navalny launched the Anti-Corruption Foundation in 2011 to combat corruption. Navalny’s quote on his mission: “… When I created the Anti-Corruption Foundation to fight this criminal regime.” 

In response to his death, Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya vowed to continue her husband’s mission of anti-corruption and democracy. Navanlnaya stated: “ But there is another half of me, and it tells me that I have no right to give in. I will continue Alexei Navalny’s work, I will continue the struggle for our country” (Yulia Navalnaya: Who is Alexei Navalny’s widow and new Russian opposition politician? | Reuters).  Earlier in the week, Navalnaya’s Twitter account got briefly suspended after an error but got quickly unsuspended. 

President Biden issued a statement condemning President Putin and praising Navalny: “ He bravely stood up to the corruption, the violence, and all the bad things that the Putin government was doing… Even in prison, he was a powerful voice for the truth” Western leaders point finger at Putin after Alexei Navalny’s death in jail. In response to this, Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary responded calling Western leaders “ absolutely outrageous and absolutely unacceptable.”

Navalny’s activism influenced the younger Russian generation to believe there was something greater to achieve. Associate professor of Russian politics at the University College of London, Ben Noble, states that Navalny “ Changed into what it meant to be a politician in Russia when there was more freedom. His ability to use social media to reach new audiences, to act as an anti-corruption activist, protest leader, and opposition politician… This activation of younger people also led to hope that politics was something they got involved in.”

Navalny thought of Russia as a “ Party of corruption, the party of crooks and thieves.”