Did opposition to Putin within Russia die with Aleksei Navalny?

Putin's main political rival

It has been a year since the suspicious death of Aleksei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin's greatest political rival.

Keeping the struggle alive

In a bid to keep the struggle against Putin alive, his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, wants to erect tombstone at his grave in Moscow where hundreds of Muscovites turned out to leave flowers and messages to mark the first anniversary of his death.

Place of hope and strength

"It will be a place of hope and strength for all those who dream of the wonderful Russia of the future," Navalnaya said on the BBC, quoting one of her late husband's best-known phrases.

Mass demonstrations

Aleksei Navalny's name came to the fore in 2017. In March of that year, mass demonstrations were held in Russia calling for an end to corruption in the country. More than 1,000 people were arrested in a single day in Moscow, including Navalny.

Arbitrary detentions

"Amnesty International delegates witnessed police pushing elderly people down stairs, beating teenagers and arbitrarily detaining journalists and passers-by," Amnesty said at the time.

Navlany's induced coma

Navalny was in and out of prison accused of various charges, but the most violent episode occurred in August 2020 when he spent two weeks in an induced coma. When he was transferred to Berlin, doctors said he had been poisoned with Novichok.

A chemical weapon from the Soviet era

The chemical weapon used was a substance that was developed by the Soviet Union. It was believed to have been used to spike Navalny's water bottle. The poison can be deadly but Russia has denied involvement in Navalny's attempted assassination.

Extensive sentence

Once he recovered, Navalny returned to Russia from Berlin, only to be met with a large-scale operation to arrest him at the airport, resulting in a 20-year sentence for promoting "extremism" and "reviving Nazi ideology."

Supporters persecuted

Little remains of Navalny's opposition movement, despite the fact that his ideas have persisted after his death with events to honor his memory. The Russian authorities cracked down on these events and Navalny's supporters have been persecuted and his lawyers imprisoned. The foundations that the opposition leader created have been banned.

Putin's blacklist

An Amnesty International report warns that Russia is dealing severely with any form of activism as well as anyone who speaks out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Twenty thousand people have already been subjected to harsh reprisals for objecting to the war while a black list has been compiled of tens of thousands accused of terrorism.

A vacuum of opposition

"Inside Russia, it's not a matter of there being no one with the charisma of Navalny," Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia-Eurasia Centre told the BBC when asked about the absence of new leaders in the wake of Navalny's death.

Harsh prison treatment

In prison, Navalny was subjected to extremely harsh treatment. As his international support grew, his health deteriorated as he was denied visits by independent doctors. He eventually collapsed and died suddenly; his relatives maintain that he was murdered.

Never miss a story! Click here to follow The Daily Digest.