"Will crumble"

How Navalny persecutes Putin beyond death

Memorial opposite the Russian embassy in Vienna. Large letters read "Putin, we are so sick of you" and "Even dead, he is more alive than you".(Bild: Angelika Eliseeva)

He called him "the person" or "the citizen you mentioned": when Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke of Alexei Navalny, he never used his name. If the mention of his most prominent critic could not be avoided, the Kremlin leader resorted to linguistic contortions. Now Navalny is dead. Following his death in a Russian prison camp, the opposition politician was buried in Moscow on Friday.

It remains to be seen what influence the uncomfortable Navalny will have beyond his death. Putin's refusal to speak the name of the man who developed from an anti-corruption blogger into his main opponent was also an attempt to cover up his own preoccupation with Navalny. Time and again, however, the Russian president had to make public statements about Navalny.

When Putin was asked about Navalny after talks with US President Joe Biden in Geneva in June 2021, he responded with phrases such as "the citizen you mentioned", "this person" and "this gentleman". When he had to comment on the imprisonment of the opposition politician in an interview on US television that same month, Putin said, according to recordings from the Kremlin, that he expected "the person you mentioned" to be treated like other people in prison.

When the journalist then mentioned Navalny's name himself, the Kremlin chief replied: "You can call him whatever you want, he is one of the people who are in prison."

Navalny lashed out at the Kremlin with unusual harshness
Navalny has always been unafraid of the Kremlin. During protests in 2011 and 2012, he declared: "We can take the Kremlin." In the mayoral election in Moscow in 2013, he ran against the Putin-backed incumbent Sergei Sobyanin. At the same time, he also built up a network of supporters outside the major cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Navalny conducted "the toughest investigations the country has ever seen into the boundless cynicism and corruption of those in power", said Andrei Kolesnikov, an expert at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. He added that the Kremlin critic represented "an alternative" for the huge nation.

Until shortly before his death, Navalny was defiant and combative. He also published messages via his team from his detention in the Arctic Circle in which he predicted the end of Putin's rule. "It will collapse and crumble. Putin's state is not sustainable. Victory is inevitable," he wrote in January. The death of the 47-year-old was announced on February 16. The exact circumstances are still unclear.

Navalny's supporters and numerous Western politicians blame the Russian leadership and Putin for Navalny's death. Moscow rejects the accusations. Thousands attended Navalny's memorial service in Moscow on Friday.

Commemoration opposite the Russian embassy in Vienna. Large letters read: "Putin, we are so sick of you" and "Even dead, he is more alive than you".(Bild: Angelika Eliseeva)

Mourning in front of the Russian embassy in Vienna
 Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic, foreign policy spokesperson for the Greens, also wanted to attend the funeral in Moscow. However, the Russian embassy rejected her visa application. "I have never experienced this in my many years as a member of parliament and it is also part of the overall picture of the harassment that exists in Russia itself to prevent family members and the population from paying their last respects to Navalny," she said with conviction.

The Green politician therefore invited people to a memorial service in front of the Russian embassy in Vienna on Friday and recalled in an emotional message: "Navalny paid for his commitment to freedom of expression and against the Putin regime with his life. His commitment to a democratic Russia is both his legacy and a mission for us all. Rest in peace, Alexei."