Hello!

I'm Maxim Polyakov, a correspondent for the online magazine ‘7x7’.

It has been a week since the murder of Alexey Navalny in prison. The makeshift memorials appeared in more than 150 Russian cities. Hundreds of people, who came to lay flowers in the politician’s memory, were detained by the police. Russian authorities are sending the citizens a clear message that Navalny’s name must be forgotten, erased from collective memory. My colleagues wrote a thorough article in Russian about Navalny fighting for power, finding supporters in a hundred Russian cities, and paying the highest price for it. In this newsletter, I will share the main points from the article and recount my own experience of observing Navalny’s activities.

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

How I Remember Navalny

My closest encounter with Navalny occurred in 2013 when he stood trial in the 'Kirovles case,' accused of economic crimes. I attended the court hearings in Kirov to write a report.

I remember journalists arriving at the court building at 5 AM. We understood that there would not be enough space for everyone in the courtroom, so people started queuing in the early morning. Activists and Navalny’s supporters were there, too; at first, they were 20, then 50, and eventually their number increased to several hundred.

When the judge announced the verdict – a 5-year prison term – the crowd outside the courthouse started booing and chanting 'Free Navalny!' For me, it was a major sign of the sentence being unfair and Navalny having turned into a significant political figure.

From the courtroom, Navalny was taken to a detention facility. Journalists, activists, and politicians started calling a taxi to go there, too. I joined them and occasionally found myself in the same car as the politician Boris Nemtsov, who would be killed two years later a few hundred meters from the Kremlin. Much as Alexey Navalny, Boris Nemtsov was cracking jokes and persuading people around him not to lose heart. This was one common trait of powerful Russian oppositionists – they were fearless.

In 2017-2018, when I was living in the north of Russia, in Syktyvkar, I watched Alexey Navalny building his proto-party. Navalny headquarters opened in Syktyvkar, and young people seeking a change joined it. They organized rallies. When rallies were banned, they began inviting people for walks. When the authorities started persecuting the participants in the walks, Navalny’s supporters increased their social media activity. I saw them striving to do their best because they believed in Navalny. And they never gave up.

Beginning of Political Career

Graduate in law and finance, Alexey Navalny first acted as a politician in 2000, when he joined the Yabloko party. He helped organize rallies and assemble groups of lawyers on regional elections. This way, he met his allies – Ilya Yashin, who was an activist back then, politician Maria Gaidar, and future Kirov Oblast Governor, Nikita Belykh.

In 2004, Navalny established a ‘Committee for Protection of Muscovites,’ which fought illegal construction in the capital and corruption in this sphere. The Committee opposed dense construction and united initiative groups in different areas of the city. In 2005, Alexey Navalny advocated press freedom as part of the ‘Democratic Alternative’ (‘DA!’) youth movement.

Since 2009, Alexey Navalny had been an active user of ‘LiveJournal,’ utilizing the platform to publish his initial investigations into corruption within public procurement. In 2011, the court ruled the claim regarding embezzlement during the construction of the ‘Transneft’ pipeline in his favor. 

Navalny continued his fight against corruption by establishing the ‘RosPil’ project in 2010. Another notable initiative, ‘RosYama,’ focused on evaluating the condition of roads, while ‘RosVybory’ monitored elections and ‘RosZhKKH’ tracked violations in public utilities. These projects eventually merged to form the Anti-Corruption Foundation.

Navalny also played a pivotal role in popularizing the slogan ‘Party of Crooks and Thieves.’ He started using this phrase in 2011, preceding the appearance of the website of the same name. Oppositionists actively used the slogan in their campaigns ahead of the 2011 State Duma elections. Posters, flags, and stickers with the inscription ‘Party of Crooks and Thieves’ were also popular among citizens who rallied to express their disagreement with the results of the elections, where United Russia got the majority of parliamentary seats. 

Moscow Mayoral Elections 2013

In 2013, the RPR-PARNAS party nominated Alexey Navalny as their candidate for the mayoral elections. By this time, Sergey Sobyanin, appointed by Dmitry Medvedev, had completed his first term as Moscow Mayor and sought re-election. 

Navalny was registered as a candidate and initiated an active campaign, which included holding daily meetings with citizens near metro stations, setting up 'Navalny's cubes,' and organizing a concert and a rally in his support. In conversations with journalists, Navalny outlined his plans, including expanding the powers of district authorities, authorizing gay pride events, and reforming migration policy. 

Despite Navalny's efforts, he secured second place in the elections with 27% of the vote, while Sobyanin won with 51.3%. Navalny alleged election fraud, claiming Sobyanin benefitted from administrative resources to secure an additional 1.5%, which decided the fate of the elections. The oppositionist threatened to rally people if the Moscow Election Commission did not overturn the results. Demonstrations indeed took place, gathering from 9,000 to 25,000 participants, according to various sources. 

First Criminal Persecutions

The 'Kirovles case', which led to Navalny's exclusion as a presidential candidate in 2018, commenced in 2009 when Sergei Karnaukhov, the Vice Governor of Kirov Oblast, initiated an investigation into embezzlement at the state-owned logging company, ‘Kirovles.’

According to investigators, Navalny, who was serving as an advisor to the head of Kirov Oblast at the time, along with the CEO of ‘Kirovles,’ intentionally sold 10,000 cubic meters of timber at a discounted price to Pyotr Ofitserov's ‘Vyatka Timber Company.’ Subsequently, the company resold the timber at a higher price, and Navalny and Ofitserov shared the profit. This purportedly resulted in a loss of 1.5 million rubles to the region's budget. Navalny and Ofitserov were given suspended sentences in 2013. They utilized the European Court of Human Rights to demonstrate that their trial rights were violated, which prompted authorities to reopen the case in 2017. 

Anti-Corruption Foundation

The Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), which conducted investigations into Russian officials and state procurements, was established in 2011. Its first year of operation was funded entirely by donations from the public.

Among the most notable investigations conducted by the ACF team are 'Chaika' (2015), which exposed the illicit enrichment of the family members of Russia’s State Prosecutor, Yury Chaika; 'Don’t Call Him Dimon' (2017), and 'Putin’s Palace' (2021), which revealed the luxurious properties owned by Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin. The release of the film 'Don’t Call Him Dimon' sparked protests across Russia, with many young people turning to YouTube to support Navalny, leading state propaganda to accuse the opposition of involving children in politics.

In addition to their investigative work, the ACF engaged volunteers as election observers, scrutinized state procurements ahead of the Sochi Olympic Games, and conducted extensive surveys. The foundation's activities contributed to the enactment of anti-corruption laws, such as the ban on officials purchasing expensive cars.

Navalny Headquarters

On December 13, 2016, Alexey Navalny sent out a message to his supporters announcing his plan to run in the upcoming 2018 presidential elections as an independent candidate. Leading the charge at Navalny's campaign headquarters was Leonid Volkov, who had previously occupied a similar position during the 2013 Moscow mayoral elections. Together, Volkov and Navalny began setting up a series of regional headquarters. These hubs aimed to gather signatures endorsing Navalny's candidacy and recruit volunteers to support his cause, marking a groundbreaking move in Russia's political landscape.

These activities were not implemented due to Navalny being barred from running in the presidential race. Nevertheless, the significance of the campaign network endured. Navalny headquarters conducted local anti-corruption investigations, rallied activists, and participated in regional protests, often collaborating with other political groups. In 2018, members and supporters of the Yaroslavl headquarter teamed up with Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) deputies to uncover evidence of Moscow's garbage being transported to a landfill near Yaroslavl. They organized patrols and attempted to block garbage trucks. One memorable anti-garbage protest saw representatives from three political movements sharing the stage: Navalny's supporters, the CPRF, and the Yabloko party.

Local authorities and law enforcement agencies tried to impede the opening and operation of the headquarters. They pressured landlords, vandalized property, conducted police raids, and arrested active members. Some were forced to flee the country, but the majority persisted in their work even after the Investigative Committee initiated legal action against the Anti-Corruption Foundation in August 2019, resulting in extensive police raids.

From a legal standpoint, the entity known as Navalny Headquarters never officially existed. However, in 2021, the Russian Prosecutor's Office filed a lawsuit seeking to designate the Headquarters, along with the Anti-Corruption Foundation, as an extremist organization. Subsequently, Leonid Volkov dissolved the movement. Some of the former headquarters later transformed into independent political entities unrelated to Alexey Navalny or the ACF.

Presidential Elections 2018

Navalny entered the presidential race as the primary challenger to Vladimir Putin. He was a popular politician with a large following on social media and experience in organizing public demonstrations. His election platform included pledges to address social inequality, combat corruption, empower Russian regions, reform legislative and law enforcement systems, end military engagements in Ukraine and Syria, and transition towards a parliamentary system of government.

However, Navalny faced significant legal hurdles. Despite receiving support from the European Court of Human Rights, the Central Election Commission, led by Ella Pamfilova, refused to register him as a candidate citing a previous conviction in the 'Kirovles case.' Although the ECHR ordered a review in 2016 and the Russian Supreme Court complied, Navalny was convicted again in 2017 after a second investigation.

Before the CEC's decision, Navalny conducted campaign visits to 29 regions across Russia. His candidacy garnered support from 15,000 individuals in 20 cities. According to estimates from Navalny Headquarters, over 700,000 voters expressed readiness to back his presidential bid during the 1.5-year campaign, with more than 200,000 signing up as volunteers. Russian citizens involved in Navalny's campaign spent over 3080 days in custody and paid fines totaling 19 million rubles.

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