The Volokh Conspiracy
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Alexei Navalny, RIP
Russia's most prominent opposition leader died in prison today, quite possibly murdered at Vladimir Putin's order.
Alexei Navalny, Russia's most prominent opposition leader, died in prison today at the age of only 47. Given that he was previously poisoned (likely at Vladimir Putin's order), it seems likely that his death was ordered by Putin, as well.
In 2021, after being treated for the poisoning in Germany, Navalny bravely returned to Russia, despite knowing he was likely to be arrested and imprisoned on arrival (as indeed happened). The charges against him were obviously trumped up; his real crime was opposing Putin's dictatorship.
Navalny devoted his life to opposing Putin's brutal regime, despite the grave risks of doing so. At times, he took some dubious positions in order to appeal to Russian nationalists, as with his waffling on the issue of Russia's seizure of Crimea, which he called illegal and unjust, but also said should not be reversed. But there can be no doubt Navalny stood for a vastly freer and more democratic Russia than now exists. Even in prison, he denounced Putin's war against Ukraine and called for the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine's internationally recognized borders (which would require withdrawal from Crimea, as well).
Navalny's views are not above criticism. But Westerners who think he didn't go far enough in his opposition to Putin should ask themselves if they would have had the courage to do as much as he did, were they in his place—knowing the price of dissent could well be imprisonment and death.
It is well to remember that Navalny was far from the only political prisoner in Putin's Russia. Opposition leaders such as Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin remain in prison right now. Western nations should press for their release.
Navalny's death should also remind us of the broader moral and strategic stakes in Putin's war against Ukraine, which Navalny, Kara-Murza, Yashin, and other Russian dissenters rightly condemned. In addition to saving Ukrainians from brutal occupation and oppression, a Ukrainian victory is also the best hope for a freer Russia. The US and its allies can help by such measures as giving Ukraine the military aid it needs, and confiscating Russian government assets in the West, to use for that purpose.
We can also open our doors to Russians fleeing Putin's regime, as many nations have done for Ukrainian refugees. As Ilya Yashin (another opposition leader imprisoned for resisting Putin), urges us, we should not forget that " hundreds of thousands of [his] countrymen left their homes behind, refusing to become murderers on the orders of the government," and should "extend a hand" to Russians who oppose the regime.