History should reward Navalny

Continuing from my story yesterday — noting what came out from my chat with my father in Moscow. He surprised me with his reprimand of Obama, then he surprised me again by talking about Navalny. “Surprised”, because I’ve written off Navalny as a credible opponent to Putin, as a candidate who can lead Russia.

Let me explain. I’m not at all being critical of Alexei Navalny. I have great respect for him, always have. I was still in Moscow in 2011–2013 when huge crowds came out to protest against Putin’s presidency (Putin in 2012 was elected President for the third time).

Without going into the detailed timeline of Navalny’s activism, it’s fair to say during those protests and in subsequent years Navalny firmly established himself as the main opposition figure in Russia.

He tried running in 2018 for President but his candidacy was denied because of his former embezzlement conviction.

Navalny was poisoned with Novichok nerve agent in the summer of 2020 while flying on a domestic flight in Russia. He went into a coma. He was evacuated to Germany from a hospital in the city of Omsk.

Upon recovery, Navalny declared he’d return to Russia, even though it was certain he’d be detained and jailed. That’s what happened of course — he was detailed and jailed; his previous suspended sentence turned into a…