Alexey Navalny: "I'm not afraid, and you shouldn't be afraid!"
On February 16, 2024, Alexei Navalny, Russia's number one opposition politician, was killed in the Polar Wolf maximum security prison colony. We now know for certain: he was poisoned with a rare, exotic toxin—a fact confirmed by independent laboratory tests.
To mark the two-year anniversary of Navalny's death, we've compiled a summary of the key facts about his political activities—and the persecution he faced for them.
1. 2008 – Launch of a LiveJournal blog. The blog quickly gained tens of thousands of subscribers and became one of the most widely read political blogs in Russia.
Navalny acquired small stakes in Gazprom, Rosneft, Transneft, VTB, and others. As a minority shareholder, he gained the right to request financial documents, submit official inquiries to company management, and take legal action against companies that refuse to disclose information. This led to the first high-profile investigations into corruption in state-owned companies.
2. 2011 — The Anti-Corruption Foundation is established. The foundation implements the following projects: RosPil, RosYama, RosVybory, Dobraya Mashina Pravda, and RosZhKH. Investigative films are released: Chaika (about the activities of the sons and colleagues of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Yuri Chaika), He's Not Dimon to You, and A Palace for Putin: The Story of the Biggest Bribe (the most-viewed non-entertainment content on Russian-language YouTube with 130 million views), among many others.
3. 2011–2012 — Navalny becomes one of the leaders of protests against election fraud. He speaks from the stage at a rally against fraud in the State Duma elections on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow, accusing the ruling party and calling for continued street protests. For this, he receives 15 days of administrative arrest.
Thanks to him, the expression "party of crooks and thieves" in reference to United Russia becomes a popular internet meme and is widely used during protests.
4. 2012–2013 — The Kirovles case. Navalny is accused of embezzlement, allegedly committed while serving as an advisor to Kirov Oblast Governor Nikita Belykh, and is sentenced to five years in prison. "Don't be bored here without me, and most importantly, don't slack off. A toad won't throw itself off an oil pipeline," Navalny's farewell tweet, written on the eve of his arrest, gains immense popularity. However, the politician is unexpectedly released on bail the very next day, following an appeal by the prosecutor's office.
5. Subsequently, the Kirov Regional Court amended Navalny's conviction, imposing a suspended sentence. Three years later, the ECHR found the trial "not to meet the requirements of fairness" and awarded Navalny and his "accomplice," Pyotr Ofitserov, substantial compensation—which was paid.
5. 2013 — Participation in the Moscow mayoral elections. After his release, Navalny triumphantly returns to Moscow, where he is greeted by hundreds of people at the Yaroslavsky Station, and confirms his intention to run for mayor—he had previously registered as a candidate.
Navalny garners over 27% of the vote, placing second behind Sobyanin. This places him at the federal level and makes him Russia's leading opposition politician, vying for the presidency.
6. 2020 – Novichok poisoning. Navalny falls ill on a plane flying from Tomsk to Moscow. The plane makes an emergency landing in Omsk, and the politician is rushed unconscious to a local clinic, where he is diagnosed with a carbohydrate metabolism disorder. Navalny's family struggles to get him sent to Germany for treatment. A few days later, Germany's Charité Clinic issues a statement stating that the politician was poisoned with an organophosphorus compound.
7. Four months later, The Insider, Bellingcat, and CNN, with the participation of Der Spiegel and the FBK, published an investigation revealing that the assassination attempt was orchestrated by FSB operatives. Navalny personally spoke with one of them, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, over the phone, introducing himself as Patrushev's assistant. In the conversation, Kudryavtsev described how the poison was washed off the politician's clothes before they were handed over to the police.
8, 2021 — Return to Russia. Navalny is arrested at the airport. He is never released. After several trials, he receives 19 years in a maximum security prison colony. He is sent to the village of Kharp (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug), to the "Polar Wolf" prison colony, known for its harsh conditions.
On February 16, 2024, Alexei Navalny died suddenly under mysterious circumstances at the age of 47. The official explanation was a blood clot.
9. On February 14, 2026, the governments of the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Sweden issue a joint statement stating that Navalny "with a high degree of probability" died from poisoning with epibatidine, a poison extracted from the skin of the Ecuadorian poison dart frog.
"Vladimir Putin killed my husband, Alexei Navalny, using chemical weapons. Of course, it's not news that Vladimir Putin is a murderer. But now we have further direct evidence. And I sincerely hope that one day he will end up in the dock and answer for everything he's done over the past few years." — Yulia Navalnaya
