Alexei Navalny and the Future of Russian Politics

UCL Uncovering Politics · Oct 7, 2021 · 40m

In this, our first episode of the new academic year, we’re looking at politics in Russia. Alexei Navalny – who hit the headlines around the world last year by surviving an attempt to assassinate him by lacing his underpants with Novichok, and who now languishes in prison 100km east of Moscow – is Russia’s best known opposition leader. Indeed, a new book about Navalny’s life and activism describes him as ‘the main political counterforce in the country’ and ‘its second most important politician’.

So who is Alexei Navalny? What does his current predicament say about the state of Russian…