A long-time adversary of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalny has spent the past few years amassing a devoted following among the Russian people and a strong social media presence. So far, Navalny has acquired more than two million followers on Twitter and more than six million subscribers on YouTube, where he posts documentaries and educational videos. In these videos, Navalny highlights the various societal and structural issues within Russia and its government, most famously exposing the parasitic relationship between Russian government officials and the Russian oligarchs that bribe them with large sums of money in exchange for political protection. His most famous documentaries have been 2017’s He is Not Dimon to You and 2021 Putin’s Palace, focused on former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Putin respectively.

Of course, for his troubles, Navalny has often faced heavy opposition from the Russian government in their pursuit to silence him. In 2013 and 2014, Navalny received two suspended sentences for embezzlement, moves that the European Сourt of Human Rights suspected to have political motivations behind them in order to prevent him from running for office. Indeed, these embezzlement charges prevented him from running for President in 2018. This ongoing opposition culminated in an incident in August of 2020 where Navalny was poisoned by a Novichok nerve agent, leading many to suspect the government of foul play due to the agent’s development and usage by the KGB, the former Soviet Union’s intelligence agency.

While the government and Putin denied any knowledge of or involvement in Navalny’s poisoning, Navalny produced an independent investigation that showed involvement by agents of the FSB, Russia’s national intelligence agency, in his poisoning. Navalny recovered from the attack in Berlin but found himself in jail after landing in Russia, arrested by the government for violating parole and failing to check in with Russian authorities.

Of course, many including the ECHR have suspected foul play by Putin and the FSB in Navalny’s arrest, and Navalny himself has already accused the government of torture and deprivation, going on a hunger strike and dropping almost 33 pounds in the process. There appears to be no clear end in sight for Navalny, but with international media outlets focusing on his situation and nationwide protests in Russia after his arrests, it appears that the man dubbed “Putin’s greatest enemy” is only getting started.