139 Facts About Alexei Navalny

Alexei Anatolievich Navalny is a Russian opposition leader, lawyer, and anti-corruption activist.

Alexei Navalny has organised anti-government demonstrations and run for office to advocate reforms against corruption in Russia, and against president Vladimir Putin and his government, who avoids referring directly to Navalny by name.

Alexei Navalny is the leader of the Russia of the Future party and founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation.

Alexei Navalny is recognised by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, and was awarded the Sakharov Prize for his work on human rights.

In December 2014, Alexei Navalny received another suspended sentence for embezzlement.

In December 2016, Alexei Navalny launched his presidential campaign for the 2018 presidential election but was barred by Russia's Central Election Commission after registering due to his prior criminal conviction; the Russian Supreme Court subsequently rejected his appeal.

In 2018, Alexei Navalny initiated Smart Voting, a tactical voting strategy intended to consolidate the votes of those who oppose United Russia, to the party of seats in elections.

Alexei Navalny was medically evacuated to Berlin and discharged a month later.

Alexei Navalny accused Putin of being responsible for his poisoning, and an investigation implicated agents from the Federal Security Service.

In January 2021, Alexei Navalny returned to Russia and was immediately detained on accusations of violating parole conditions while he was hospitalised in Germany which were imposed as a result of his 2014 conviction.

Alexei Navalny's father is from Zalissia, a former village near the Belarus border that was relocated due to the Chernobyl disaster in Ivankiv Raion, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine.

Alexei Navalny grew up in Obninsk, about 100 kilometres southwest of Moscow, but spent his childhood summers with his grandmother in Ukraine, acquiring proficiency in the Ukrainian language.

Alexei Navalny graduated from Kalininets secondary school in 1993.

Alexei Navalny graduated from the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia in 1998 with a law degree.

Alexei Navalny then studied securities and exchanges at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, graduating in 2001.

Alexei Navalny received a scholarship to the Yale World Fellows program at Yale University in 2010.

Since 1998, Alexei Navalny worked as a lawyer for various Russian companies.

In 2009, Alexei Navalny became an advocate and a member of advocate's chamber of Kirov Oblast.

In November 2013, after the judgement in the Kirovles case had entered into force, Alexei Navalny was deprived of advocate status.

In 2000, following the announcement of a new law that would raise the electoral threshold for State Duma elections, Alexei Navalny joined the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko.

Alexei Navalny organised television debates via state-run Moscow channel TV Center; two initial episodes showed high ratings, but the show was suddenly cancelled.

In late 2006, Alexei Navalny appealed to the Moscow City Hall, asking it to grant permission to conduct the nationalist 2006 Russian march.

In July 2007, Alexei Navalny resigned from the post of Deputy Chief of the Moscow branch of the party.

Alexei Navalny was consequently expelled from Yabloko for demanding a resignation of the chairman of the party, Grigory Yavlinsky.

Also in 2007, Alexei Navalny co-founded the National Russian Liberation Movement, known as NAROD, that sets immigration policy as a priority.

Alexei Navalny was kept in the same prison as several other activists, including Ilya Yashin and Sergei Udaltsov, the unofficial leader of the Vanguard of Red Youth, a radical Russian communist youth group.

In March 2012, after Putin was elected president, Alexei Navalny helped lead an anti-Putin rally in Moscow's Pushkinskaya Square, attended by between 14,000 and 20,000 people.

Alexei Navalny said the concept of political parties was "outdated", and added his participation would make maintaining the party more difficult.

On 15 December 2012 Alexei Navalny expressed his support of the party, saying, "The People's Alliance is my party", but again refused to join it, citing the criminal cases against him.

On 17 November 2013 Alexei Navalny was elected as the leader of the party.

On 8 January 2014, Alexei Navalny's party filed documents for registration for the second time.

On 8 February 2014, Alexei Navalny's party changed its name to "Progress Party".

Alexei Navalny added that the party would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, and expressed confidence that the party would be restored and admitted to elections.

Thanks to Alexei Navalny's strong campaign, his result grew over time, weakening Sobyanin's, and in the end of the campaign, he declared the runoff election was "a hair's breadth away".

Alexei Navalny fared better in the center and southwest of Moscow, which have higher income and education levels.

Alexei Navalny then challenged the decision in the Supreme Court of Russia, but the court ruled that the election results were legitimate.

Alexei Navalny declared merging parties would invoke bureaucratic difficulties and question the legitimacy of party's right to participate in federal elections without signatures collecting.

Alexei Navalny announced his entry into the presidential race on 13 December 2016, however on 8 February 2017, the Leninsky district court of Kirov repeated its sentence of 2013 and charged him with a five-year suspended sentence.

Alexei Navalny announced that he would pursue the annulment of the sentence that clearly contradicts the decision of ECHR.

Alexei Navalny referred to the Russian Constitution, which deprives only two groups of citizens of the right to be elected: those recognised by the court as legally unfit and those kept in places of confinement by a court sentence.

Alexei Navalny was attacked by unknown assailants outside his office in the Anti-Corruption Foundation on 27 April 2017.

Alexei Navalny had been attacked before, earlier in the spring.

Alexei Navalny reportedly lost 80 percent of the sight in his right eye.

Alexei Navalny was released from jail on 27 July 2017 after spending 25 days of imprisonment.

Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 20 days in jail on 2 October 2017 for calls to participate in protests without approval from state authorities.

In December 2017, Russia's Central Electoral Commission barred Alexei Navalny from running for president in 2018, citing Alexei Navalny's corruption conviction.

The European Union said Alexei Navalny's removal cast "serious doubt" on the election.

Alexei Navalny called for a boycott of the 2018 presidential election, stating his removal meant that millions of Russians were being denied their vote.

Alexei Navalny led protests on 28 January 2018 to urge a boycott of Russia's 2018 presidential election.

Alexei Navalny was arrested on the day of the protest and then released the same day, pending trial.

Two of Alexei Navalny's associates were given brief jail terms for urging people to attend unsanctioned opposition rallies.

Alexei Navalny stated on 5 February 2018 the government was accusing Alexei Navalny of assaulting an officer during the protests.

In July 2019, Alexei Navalny was arrested, first for ten days, and then, almost immediately, for 30 days.

Vasilieva questioned the diagnosis and suggested the possibility that Alexei Navalny's condition was the result of "the damaging effects of undetermined chemicals".

On 29 July 2019, Alexei Navalny was discharged from hospital and taken back to prison, despite the objections of his personal physician who questioned the hospital's motives.

Alexei Navalny said that the changes would allow President Putin to become "president for life".

In 2008, Alexei Navalny invested 300,000 rubles in stocks of 5 oil and gas companies: Rosneft, Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Lukoil, and Surgutneftegas, thus becoming an activist shareholder.

In November 2010, Alexei Navalny published confidential documents about Transneft's auditing.

In May 2011, Alexei Navalny launched RosYama, a project that allowed individuals to report potholes and track government responses to complaints.

Alexei Navalny posted scans of documents to his blog showing the money transfers.

The posting was described by the Financial Times as Alexei Navalny's "answering shot" for having had his emails leaked during his arrest in the previous month.

Shortly after his allegations against Zolotov, Alexei Navalny was imprisoned for staging protests in January 2018.

In March 2017, Alexei Navalny published the investigation He Is Not Dimon to You, accusing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of corruption.

Alexei Navalny's team said that it managed to confirm reporting about Putin's alleged lovers Svetlana Krivonogikh and Alina Kabaeva.

Alexei Navalny was released on his own recognizance but instructed not to leave Moscow.

Alexei Navalny announced that he will pursue the annulment of the sentence that clearly contradicts the decision of ECHR.

In 2008 Oleg Alexei Navalny made an offer to Yves Rocher Vostok, the Eastern European subsidiary of Yves Rocher between 2008 and 2012, to accredit Glavpodpiska, which was created by Alexei Navalny, with delivering duties.

The funds were claimed to be subsequently legalised by transferring them on fictitious grounds from a fly-by-night company to Kobyakovskaya Fabrika Po Lozopleteniyu, a willow weaving company founded by Alexei Navalny and operated by his parents.

Alexei Navalny claimed the arrest was politically motivated, and he filed a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights.

Alexei Navalny again pleaded not to prolong the arrest, but the plea was rejected again.

Alexei Navalny broke his home arrest to attend the rally and was immediately arrested by the police and brought back home.

Alexei Navalny declared the case was "a frame up", but he added he would pay the sum as this could affect granting his brother's parole.

Alexei Navalny declared he could not cover the requested sum; he called the suit a "drain-dry strategy" by authorities.

Alexei Navalny alleged that Russian billionaire and businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin was linked to a company called Moskovsky Shkolnik that had supplied poor quality food to schools which had caused a dysentery outbreak.

In October 2019, the Moscow Arbitration Court ordered Alexei Navalny to pay 29.2 million rubles.

On 20 August 2020 Alexei Navalny fell ill during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow and was hospitalised in the Emergency City Clinical Hospital No 1 in Omsk, where the plane had made an emergency landing.

Alexei Navalny said that since he arose that morning, Navalny had consumed nothing but a cup of tea, acquired at the airport.

On 21 December 2020 Alexei Navalny released a video showing him impersonating a Russian security official and speaking over the phone with a man identified by some investigative news media as a chemical weapons expert named Konstantin Kudryavtsev.

On 17 January 2021 Alexei Navalny returned to Russia by plane from Germany, arriving at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow after the flight was diverted from Vnukovo Airport.

Amnesty International declared Alexei Navalny to be a prisoner of conscience and called on the Russian authorities to release him.

Alexei Navalny described the procedure as "ultimate lawlessness" and called on his supporters to take to the streets.

Alexei Navalny later returned to court for a trial on slander charges, where he was accused of defaming a World War II veteran who took part in a promotional video backing the constitutional amendments last year.

Alexei Navalny called the case politically motivated and accused authorities of using the case to smear his reputation.

Alexei Navalny's lawyers had applied to the court for an "interim measure" for his release on 20 January 2021 after his detention.

Alexei Navalny was reported on 28 February 2021 to have recently arrived at the Pokrov correctional colony in Vladimir Oblast, a prison where Dmitry Demushkin and Konstantin Kotov were jailed.

Alexei Navalny told lawyers that guards wake him up eight times a night announcing to a camera that he is in his prison cell.

On 31 March 2021, Alexei Navalny announced a hunger strike to demand proper medical treatment.

On 7 April 2021, Alexei Navalny's attorneys claimed he had suffered two spinal disc herniations and had lost feeling in his hands, prompting criticism from the US government.

Alexei Navalny complained that he was not allowed to read newspapers or have any books including a copy of the Quran that he planned to study.

On 17 April 2021, it was reported that Alexei Navalny was in immediate need of medical attention.

Test results obtained by Alexei Navalny's lawyers showed heightened levels of potassium in the blood, which can bring on cardiac arrest, and sharply elevated creatinine levels, indicating impaired kidneys.

On 19 April 2021 Alexei Navalny was moved from prison to a hospital for convicts, according to the Russian prison service, for "vitamin therapy".

On 23 April 2021, Alexei Navalny announced that he was ending his hunger strike on advice of his doctors and as he felt his demands had been partially met.

Vyacheslav Polyga, judge of Moscow City Court, upheld the administrative claim of the prosecutor of Moscow city Denis Popov and, rejecting all the petitions of the defense, decided to recognise Anti-Corruption Foundation as extremist organisation, to liquidate it and to confiscate its assets; similar decision had been taken against Citizens' Rights Protection Foundation; the activity of the Alexei Navalny staff was prohibited.

On 28 December 2021, it was reported that Anti-Corruption Foundation, Citizens' Rights Protection Foundation and 18 natural persons including Alexei Navalny filed a cassation appeals to the Second Cassation Ordinary Court.

In October 2021, Alexei Navalny said that the Russian prison commission designated him as a "terrorist" and "extremist", but that he was no longer regarded as a flight risk.

On 28 June 2022, Alexei Navalny lost his appeal on being designated as "extremist" and "terrorist".

In February 2022 Alexei Navalny faced an additional 10 to 15 years in prison in a new trial on fraud and contempt of court charges.

Alexei Navalny was tried in a makeshift courtroom in the corrective colony at which he was imprisoned.

On 22 March 2022, Alexei Navalny was found guilty of contempt of court and embezzlement and given a 9-year sentence in a maximum-security prison; he was ordered to pay a fine of 1.2 million rubles.

On 17 May 2022, Alexei Navalny opened an appeal process against the sentence; the court said the process would resume on 24 May after Alexei Navalny requested to postpone the hearing to have a family meeting before being transferred.

On 31 May 2022, Alexei Navalny said that he was officially notified about new charges of extremism brought against him, in which he was facing up to an additional 15 years in prison.

In mid-June 2022, Alexei Navalny was transferred to the maximum security prison IK-6 in Melekhovo, Vladimir Oblast.

On 11 July 2022, Alexei Navalny announced the relaunch of his Anti-Corruption Foundation as an international organization with an advisory board including his wife Yulia Navalnaya, Guy Verhofstadt, Anne Applebaum, and Francis Fukuyama; Alexei Navalny stated that the first contribution to Anti-Corruption Foundation International would be the Sakharov Prize that was awarded to him.

On 7 September 2022, Alexei Navalny said that he had been placed in solitary confinement for the fourth time in just over a month, after just being released.

Alexei Navalny linked his recent treatment to his attempts to establish a labour union in his penal colony and his "6000" list of individuals he has called to be sanctioned.

On 4 October 2022, allies of Alexei Navalny said they were relaunching his regional political network to fight the mobilization and war.

On 17 November 2022, Alexei Navalny stated that he was now in permanent solitary confinement.

In October 2010 Alexei Navalny was the winner of an online poll for the mayor of Moscow, held by Kommersant and Gazeta.

Former Minister of Finance Alexei Navalny Kudrin stated that it was "looking less like a punishment than an attempt to isolate him from social life and the electoral process".

In May 2011, the Russian government began a criminal investigation into Alexei Navalny, widely described in media as "revenge", and by Alexei Navalny himself as "a fabrication by the security services".

In 2011, Alexei Navalny stated that he considered himself a "nationalist democrat".

Alexei Navalny previously participated in the "Russian march" from 2006, a parade uniting Russian nationalist groups of all stripes, and was one of the co-organisers of the 2011 march.

Alexei Navalny has called for ending federal subsidies to the "corrupt" and "ineffective" governments of Chechnya and other republics part of the North Caucasus.

In 2013, after ethnic riots in a Moscow district took place, which were sparked by a murder committed by a migrant, Alexei Navalny sympathised with the anti-immigration movement and commented that ethnic tensions and crimes are inevitable because of failing immigration policies by the state.

Previously, Alexei Navalny was described as "shar[ing] the establishment view that Russia is entitled to a say in the domestic affairs of its post-Soviet neighbors," and supported the expansion of the Eurasian Economic Union.

Alexei Navalny called on Russia to recognize and militarily support Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2008, following the Russo-Georgian War.

In 2016, Alexei Navalny spoke against the Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war, believing that there are internal problems in Russia that need to be dealt with rather than to get involved in foreign wars.

In March 2014, after Russia's annexation of Crimea, Alexei Navalny urged further sanctions against officials and businessmen linked to Putin and proposed his own list of sanctions, saying that previous US and EU sanctions were "mocked".

In October 2014, Alexei Navalny suggested the fate of Crimea should be resolved by holding a new and fair referendum.

Alexei Navalny said that Putin's government should stop "sponsoring the war" in Donbas.

In February 2022, Alexei Navalny compared the recognition of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic by Russia to when Soviet leaders deployed troops to Afghanistan in 1979, describing both events as a distraction to the population from real issues.

Alexei Navalny said that he believes that while Putin won't allow Ukraine to develop, Russia will pay the same price, and that Putin needed to be removed to save Russia.

Alexei Navalny was named "Person of the Year 2009" by Russian business newspaper Vedomosti and by stock exchange observer Stock in Focus.

On 22 April 2010, Alexei Navalny was awarded the Finance magazine prize in the nomination "for protecting the rights of minority shareholders".

Alexei Navalny was a World Fellow at Yale University's World Fellows Program, aimed at "creating a global network of emerging leaders and to broaden international understanding" in 2010.

Alexei Navalny was listed by Time magazine in 2012 as one of the world's 100 most influential people, the only Russian on the list.

In 2013, Alexei Navalny came in at No 48 among "world thinkers" in an online poll by the UK magazine Prospect.

In June 2017, Alexei Navalny was included Time magazine's list of the World's 25 Most Influential People on the Internet.

Alexei Navalny was named "Politician of the Year 2019" by readers of Vedomosti.

Alexei Navalny was nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize by multiple Norwegian members of parliament.

An Internet petition to the Nobel Committee in support of Mr Alexei Navalny's candidacy has been signed by over 38,000 people.

On 8 June 2021, Alexei Navalny's daughter accepted the Moral Courage Award at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy on behalf of her father.

In September 2021, Alexei Navalny was included in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people.

In 2023, the documentary film about him, Alexei Navalny, directed by Daniel Roher, won Best Documentary at the 76th British Academy Film Awards and Best Documentary Feature at the 95th Academy Awards.

Alexei Navalny is married to Yulia Navalnaya and has two children, daughter Dasha, currently an undergraduate student at Stanford University, and son Zakhar.

Alexei Navalny was originally an atheist, but has since become an member of the Russian Orthodox Church.

On 27 January 2021, Alexei Navalny was again arrested as he was returning to Russia, after having had to leave the country for medical treatment in Germany for a poisoning attempt against his life that had recently occurred in Russia.

Alexei Navalny was listed by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience in May 2021, meaning that AI holds that Alexei Navalny's incarceration is primarily due to his political beliefs.