Nine days ago, Alexey Navalny returned to Russia – and changed the country’s politics forever.
The opposition leader had been in Germany since August 2020, recovering from what is now internationally recognised as an assassination attempt by the Kremlin (which President Vladimir Putin denies). But while there, he was far from idle. In December, he and a team of investigators published an investigation into his likely FSB killers – and then managed to dupe one of them into speaking with Navalny on the phone.
Then on 13 January, the 44-year-old politician announced his return to Russia, arriving four days later, when he was promptly arrested at a Moscow airport. The following day, while Navalny live-streamed his arrest proceedings from a court session held in a police station, his team released another damning YouTube clip.
