# Alexei Navalny Russia's most prominent opposition leader of the [[Vladimir Putin]] era and the single figure who came closest to building a genuine mass movement against the regime. A lawyer by training, Navalny turned anti-corruption investigation into political theater: his **Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK)** produced slickly edited exposés of elite wealth — most famously "Putin's Palace," viewed over 100 million times — that reached audiences state TV could not insulate. ## Smart voting and mobilization Navalny's "Smart Voting" strategy urged Russians to back whichever candidate was best placed to beat United Russia, a practical hack for an unfree system designed to fracture the ruling party's local dominance. He built a national network of regional offices — unusual for Russian opposition, which had long been Moscow-centric — that doubled as an organizing infrastructure. ## Poisoning, return, and death In August 2020 he was poisoned with the nerve agent **Novichok** and evacuated to Germany, where he recovered. In a decision that defined his moral stature and his fate, he **returned to Russia in January 2021** and was arrested on arrival. He spent his final three years moved through increasingly harsh penal colonies. On **February 16, 2024**, Russian authorities announced he had died at the "Polar Wolf" Arctic colony — a death his allies, his family, and Western governments attribute to the Putin regime. ## Why he's here Navalny anchors the Russian entry in this MOC precisely because [[Vladimir Putin]]'s regime is the authoritarian-right pole the Western [[New Right]] increasingly orbits. His widow [[Yulia Navalnaya]] has carried the movement forward from exile. ## Related - [[International Democratic Opposition Hub]] - [[Yulia Navalnaya]] - [[Vladimir Putin]]