Navalny and the absence of liberal democracy

Abstract

As we mark two years since the start of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, we are reeling from the shocking news that Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s foremost critic and political opponent, died while serving a prison sentence. Sadly, Navalny is not the first political opponent to have died. Navalny himself was also poisoned with Novichok in 2020, and later returned to Russia because he believed that his political campaign needed to be fought inside the country rather than from outside. The charges brought against him, and his subsequent incarceration, was also seen as a way to impede his political role and future. Whatever the cause of death was or turns out to be, Navalny was ultimately a victim of Russia’s shattered democracy and broken political system.