Navalny: Putin's Nemesis, Russia's Future?
Jan Matti Dollbaum, Morvan Lallouet, and Ben Noble
Abstract
Alexei Navalny—the anti-corruption activist and leading figure of the Russian opposition—was poisoned in August 2020. Following recovery in Germany, he returned to Russia in January 2021 in the full glare of the world’s media. But who exactly is Navalny? To some, he is a democratic hero. To others, he is a traitor. To others still, he is a dangerous nationalist. Media portrayals of Navalny are often black and white—of Navalny versus Vladimir Putin, democrat versus dictator, good versus evil. The book challenges these simple framings, exploring the many nuances and shades of grey. The book char ... More
Alexei Navalny—the anti-corruption activist and leading figure of the Russian opposition—was poisoned in August 2020. Following recovery in Germany, he returned to Russia in January 2021 in the full glare of the world’s media. But who exactly is Navalny? To some, he is a democratic hero. To others, he is a traitor. To others still, he is a dangerous nationalist. Media portrayals of Navalny are often black and white—of Navalny versus Vladimir Putin, democrat versus dictator, good versus evil. The book challenges these simple framings, exploring the many nuances and shades of grey. The book charts Navalny's successive attempts to challenge Vladimir Putin and Russia’s authoritarian regime as an anti-corruption activist, politician, and protest leader. By following these three threads, Navalny: Putin’s Nemesis, Russia’s Future? sheds light on both the life of this central opposition figure and on twenty years of Russian politics. The book provides insights into Navalny’s movement, drawing on surveys and interview data from activists on the ground. Finally, it analyses the dynamic interaction between Navalny and the Kremlin. Rather than a traditional biography, therefore, the book provides a political portrait of Navalny the man alongside his team and the movement he built, placing him in his political and social context. To understand modern-day Russia, we need to understand Navalny.
Keywords:
Alexei Navalny,
politics,
Russia,
opposition,
protest,
authoritarianism,
Vladimir Putin,
Kremlin,
corruption,
poisoning
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2021 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780197611708 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2022 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780197611708.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Jan Matti Dollbaum, author
Postdoctoral researcher, Bremen University
Morvan Lallouet, author
PhD candidate, University of Kent
Ben Noble, author
Lecturer in Russian Politics, University College London
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