The situation surrounding Navalny’s death — and the aftermath — is raising questions about Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
All eyes are on Russia following the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Mourners have been detained: At least 366 people were detained in Russia over the weekend for mourning Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death, according to The New York Times. The AP photo above shows a man detained while laying flowers at a Navalny memorial in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Navalny’s wife pledged to fight against Putin: Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said that she would continue her late husband’s work and fight Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Excerpt: “By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me, half of my heart and my soul. But I still have the other half, and it tells me that I have no right to give up,” she said in a video posted on her husband’s YouTube channel....
...Navalny (click here) consistently exposed new weak spots of Putin's regime and looked for ways to exploit them. In particular, he became a noticeable political figure after using Russian legislation on government procurement to conduct prominent anti-corruption investigations. His RosPil project invited the public to scrutinize public documents for evidence of corruption. Other projects that Navalny launched early in his career, such as RosYama or RosZhKH, were based on the same principle, empowering Russian citizens dissatisfied with the authorities due to the poor quality of the country's infrastructure.
A decade later, in 2019, following a similar principle, Navalny managed to leverage the labor rights agenda. The Teachers' Alliance and Doctors' Alliance, members of the trade union association he created, became visible political actors in Russia.
Navalny was also very open-minded about who he entered into coalitions with, to the point of attracting criticism. He chose diverse partners throughout his career, guided not so much by ideological affinity as by the extent to which they could open up new opportunities for his struggle. His political career started in the Russian social-liberal party Yabloko in 2000. In 2007, he co-founded the national-democratic movement NAROD, together with prominent Russian nationalists.
During the protests of 2011-2012, Navalny coordinated actions with various liberal, nationalist, and socialist forces. He also contributed to creating the Coordination Council of the Russian Opposition to unite a broad spectrum of politicians, from right-wing to left-wing ones. In 2013, he was nominated as a candidate in the Moscow mayoral elections by the liberal....
...Last year, (click here) the Federal Antimonopoly Service also included IK-3 — which can house up to 1,050 prisoners, according to the Federal Penitentiary Service — on its register of unreliable contractors.
Other prisoners reported experiencing “psychological stress” due to their conditions, Vyorstka said.
Some even accused prison guards of torture.
“When prisoners enter the colony, they are taken to the bathhouse. When a person undresses and goes to wash, the water is turned off and people in masks come in and start beating him. With me, this lasted for about half an hour. There were about 15 people — both prisoners and employees,” said convict Mikho Khulilidze, who served his prison term in IK-3.
“They put me on the floor and beat me with batons and fists on my buttocks, my head, my face, my ribs. They did not provide any medical assistance,” Khulilidze said....

















