Commemorative services across Europe are being held to remember the brave Russian anti-corruption leader.
The widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says she has thought about him every day since his death exactly a year ago.
Writing on Instagram, Yulia Navalnaya said: “Love you so much, miss you so much.”
Staunch Putin critic Mr Navalny, 47, died mysteriously in an Arctic penal colony on 16 February 2024. His body is buried at Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow. The politician, who campaigned against official corruption and led major anti-Kremlin protests, was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism.
Notably, some leaders have hailed the heroism.
Late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny died “because he fought for democracy and freedom in Russia,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the first anniversary of the opposition leader’s death.
Navalny died in a Russian Arctic penal colony on February 16 last year. His supporters believe his death came following direct orders from the Kremlin.
In stark contrast, an American politician who has changed his identity multiple times and lately goes by J.D. Vance while sitting in the Vice President’s chair, have disrespected Navalny’s death with utter indifference.
We know Navalny died, because we know Putin is a brutal guy, but I knew Putin was a brutal guy a year ago and I know he will be a brutal guy a year from now. […] A first-time election candidate who shot to fame for his [fictionalized racist] 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, [Vance has changed his name at least three times and] has become a staunch defender of former U.S. President Donald Trump, despite previously describing himself as a “never-Trumper.”
Vance, who repeatedly and convincingly has proven that he did not have sex with a couch, seems to want us to believe instead that he harbors a great affection for Vladimir the Underpants Poisoner.
“[Putin’s] main gripe with me is that he’ll go down in history as a poisoner,” Navalny told the court scornfully. “We had Alexander the Liberator, Yaroslav the Wise, and we will have Vladimir the Underpants Poisoner.” Underpants had become a social media meme in Russia after Navalny carried out a telephone sting in December 2020 on a Russian FSB state security agent, who revealed that Novichok, a highly toxic Russian chemical weapon, had been smeared on Navalny’s underwear.
The deeper story lies in how Vance and Navalny approach truth and power in completely opposite ways. As records show:
Navalny’s fate was terrible, and instructive. No radical, he tried to reform Russia from within. His Anti-Corruption Foundation published factual investigations into official wrongdoing. He ran for mayor of Moscow in 2013. But increased prominence brought increased persecution, and he was barred from the 2018 presidential election. More than anything, perhaps, he was a patriot, principled, charismatic, popular and humorous – everything Putin is not. In 2020 Navalny almost died, poisoned by a Novichok nerve agent. In 2021, he was rearrested, jailed, removed to the Polar Wolf Arctic camp, isolated, silenced and killed.
The contrast couldn’t be clearer: one man died maintaining his principles despite assassination attempts and imprisonment, while another treats principles as adjustable accessories to personal ambition.
Navalny built his career on factual investigations and transparency; Vance built his on political theater – shifting positions as convenience dictates. It’s a stark lesson in two models of leadership: one anchored in consistent values and public service, the other in political expediency and self-interest.