Key words and paragraphs of #conscious Alexei Navalny (Russian and Ukrainian descent)

Worthy notes to put here and worthy to copy ourselves and for me to re-read.

Same as Wikipedia but spaced out ideas a bit.

█Some Best Bits first from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Navalny

(I will re-organise in future maybe but for now...)

█"Navalny initiated Smart Voting (coalition ??????), a tactical voting strategy intended to consolidate the votes of those who oppose United Russia, to the party of seats in elections"
█His organisations were later designated as extremist and liquidated
█One of the initiators of the Youth Public Chamber, intended to help younger politicians take part in legislative initiatives.

At the same time, in 2005, █Navalny started another youth social movement, named "DA! – Democratic Alternative".

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Text dump + spaced out below:

Alexei Anatolievich Navalny (1976 – 16 February 2024) was a Russian opposition leader, lawyer, anti-corruption activist and a political prisoner.

He organised anti-government demonstrations and ran for office to advocate reforms against corruption in Russia, and against President Vladimir Putin and his government.

Navalny was a Russian Opposition Coordination Council member. He was the leader of the "Russia of the Future" party and founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).

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

As of 2021, Navalny had more than six million YouTube subscribers; through his social media channels, he and his team have published material about corruption in Russia, organised political demonstrations and promoted his campaigns. In a 2011 radio interview, he described Russia's ruling party, United Russia, as a "party of crooks and thieves", which became a popular epithet.

Navalny and the FBK have published investigations detailing alleged corruption by high-ranking Russian officials and their associates.

In July 2013, Navalny received a suspended sentence for embezzlement, but was still allowed to run in the 2013 Moscow mayoral election and came in second, with 27% of the vote, outperforming expectations but losing to incumbent mayor Sergey Sobyanin, a Putin appointee. In December 2014, Navalny received another suspended sentence for embezzlement. Both of his criminal cases were widely considered to be politically motivated and intended to bar him from running in future elections. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) later ruled that the cases violated Navalny's right to a fair trial, but the sentences were never overturned.

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

In 2017, the documentary He Is Not Dimon to You was released, accusing Dmitry Medvedev, the then prime minister and previous president, of corruption, leading to mass protests.

In 2018, 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.[20][21][22]

In August 2020, Navalny was hospitalised in serious condition after being poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent.[23] He was medically evacuated to Berlin and discharged a month later.[24] Navalny accused Putin of being responsible for his poisoning, and an investigation implicated agents from the Federal Security Service.[

In January 2021, 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.

Following his arrest and the release of the documentary Putin's Palace, which accused Putin of corruption, mass protests were held across Russia.[31] In February 2021, his suspended sentence was replaced with a prison sentence of over two and a half years' detention, and his organisations were later designated as extremist and liquidated, including the FBK. In March 2022, Navalny was sentenced to an additional nine years in prison after being found guilty of embezzlement and contempt of court in a new trial described as a sham by Amnesty International;[35][36] his appeal was rejected and in June, he was transferred to a high-security prison.

In August 2023, Navalny was sentenced to an additional 19 years in prison on extremism charges[38] meaning he would be released in December 2038.[39] Navalny commented that his sentence is as long as either his life or the life of the political regime in the country.[40] In December 2023, Navalny went missing from prison for almost three weeks, and then re-emerged in a new prison in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.[41][42]

On 16 February 2024, the Russian prison service reported that Navalny had died at the age of 47,[43] allegedly from a blood clot.[44]

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Early life and education

Navalny was of Russian and Ukrainian descent.[45][46] His father was from Zalissia, a former village near the Belarusian border that was relocated due to the Chernobyl disaster in Ivankiv Raion, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Navalny grew up in Obninsk, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) southwest of Moscow, but spent his childhood summers with his grandmother in Ukraine, acquiring proficiency in the Ukrainian language.[45][47] His parents, Anatoly Navalny and Lyudmila Navalnaya, own a basket-weaving factory, which they ran from 1994, in the village of Kobyakovo, Vologda Oblast. They were still running the factory in 2012.[48]

Navalny graduated from Kalininets secondary school (level 3 according to the ISCED) in 1993.[49] He graduated from the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia in 1998 with a law degree.[50] He then studied securities and exchanges at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, graduating in 2001.[51][52]

Navalny received a scholarship to the Yale World Fellows program at Yale University in 2010.[53][54]
Legal career

From 1998, Navalny worked as a lawyer for various Russian companies.[49]

In 2009, he became an advocate and a member of advocate's chamber (bar association) of Kirov Oblast (registration number 43/547). In 2010, due to his move to Moscow, he ceased to be a member of advocate's chamber of Kirov Oblast and became a member of advocate's chamber of Moscow (registration number 77/9991).[55][56]

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

Political activity
Yabloko
Navalny in 2006

In 2000, following the announcement of a new law that would raise the electoral threshold for State Duma elections, Navalny joined the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko. According to Navalny, the law was stacked against Yabloko and Union of Right Forces, and he decided to join, even though he was not "a big fan" of either organisation.

In 2001, he was listed as a member of the party.[59] In 2002, he was elected to the regional council of the Moscow branch of Yabloko.[60] In 2003, he headed the Moscow subdivision of the election campaign of the party for the parliamentary election held in December. In April 2004, Navalny became Chief of staff of the Moscow branch of Yabloko, which he remained until February 2007. Also in 2004, he became Deputy Chief of the Moscow branch of the party. From 2006 to 2007, he was a member of the Federal Council of the party.[61]

In August 2005, Navalny was admitted to the Social Council of the Central Administrative Okrug of Moscow, created prior to the Moscow City Duma election held later that year, in which he took part as a candidate. In November, he was one of the initiators of the Youth Public Chamber, intended to help younger politicians take part in legislative initiatives[61].

At the same time, in 2005, Navalny started another youth social movement, named "DA! – Democratic Alternative".[d] The project was not connected to Yabloko, nor any other political party. Within the movement, Navalny participated in a number of projects. In particular, he was one of the organisers of the movement-run political debates, which soon resonated in the media.[61] Navalny also organised television debates via state-run Moscow channel TV Center; two initial episodes showed high ratings, but the show was suddenly cancelled. According to Navalny, the authorities prohibited the appearance of certain people on television.[61]

In late 2006, Navalny appealed to the Moscow City Hall, asking it to grant permission to conduct the nationalist 2006 Russian march. However, he added that Yabloko condemned "any ethnic or racial hatred and any xenophobia" and called on the police to oppose "any fascist, Nazi, xenophobic manifestations".[e]

In July 2007, Navalny resigned from the post of Deputy Chief of the Moscow branch of the party.[61] He was consequently expelled from Yabloko for demanding a resignation of the chairman of the party, Grigory Yavlinsky.[63] Also in 2007, Navalny co-founded the National Russian Liberation Movement, known as NAROD (The People), which sets immigration policy as a priority.[64] The movement allied itself with two nationalist groups, the Movement Against Illegal Immigration and Great Russia.[65]
2011 parliamentary election and protests
Main articles: 2011 Russian legislative election and 2011–2013 Russian protests
Navalny at the courthouse, 6 December 2011

In December 2011, after parliamentary elections and accusations of electoral fraud,[66] approximately 6,000 people gathered in Moscow to protest the contested result, and an estimated 300 people were arrested, including Navalny. Navalny was arrested on 5 December.[67][68] After a period of uncertainty for his supporters, Navalny appeared in court and was sentenced to the maximum 15 days "for defying a government official". Alexei Venediktov, editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow radio station, called the arrest "a political mistake: jailing Navalny transforms him from an online leader into an offline one".[68] After his arrest, his blog became available in English.[67] 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. Udaltsov went on a hunger strike to protest against the conditions.[69]
Navalny at Moscow rally, 10 March 2012

Upon his release on 20 December 2011, Navalny called on Russians to unite against Putin, who Navalny said would try to claim victory in the presidential election, which was held on 4 March 2012.[70] In a profile published the day after his release, BBC News described Navalny as "arguably the only major opposition figure to emerge in Russia in the past five years".[71]

After his release, Navalny informed reporters that it would be senseless for him to run in the presidential elections because the Kremlin would not allow the elections to be fair, but if free elections were held, he would "be ready" to run.[70] On 24 December, he helped lead a demonstration, estimated at 50,000 people, which was much larger than the previous post-election demonstration. Speaking to the crowd, he said, "I see enough people to take the Kremlin right now".[72]

In March 2012, after Putin was elected president, Navalny helped lead an anti-Putin rally in Moscow's Pushkinskaya Square, attended by between 14,000 and 20,000 people. After the rally, Navalny was detained by authorities for several hours, then released.[73] On 8 May 2012, the day after Putin was inaugurated, Navalny and Udaltsov were arrested after an anti-Putin rally at Clean Ponds, and were each given 15-day jail sentences.[74] Amnesty International designated the two men prisoners of conscience.[75] On 11 June, Moscow prosecutors conducted a 12-hour search of Navalny's home, office, and the apartment of one of his relatives.[76] Soon afterwards, some of Navalny's personal emails were posted online by a pro-government blogger.[77]
New party
Main article: Russia of the Future

On 26 June 2012, it was announced that Navalny's comrades would establish a new political party based on e-democracy; Navalny declared he did not plan to participate in this project at the moment.[78] On 31 July, they filed a document to register an organising committee of a future party named "The People's Alliance".[79] The party identified itself as centrist; one of the then-current leaders of the party, and Navalny's ally Vladimir Ashurkov, explained this was intended to help the party get a large share of voters. Navalny said the concept of political parties was "outdated", and added his participation would make maintaining the party more difficult. However, he "blessed" the party and discussed its maintenance with its leaders. They, in turn, stated they wanted to eventually see Navalny as a member of the party.[80] On 15 December 2012 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.[81]

On 10 April 2013, the party filed documents for the official registration of the party.[82] On 30 April, the registration of the party was suspended.[83] On 5 July 2013 the party was declined registration; according to Izvestia, not all founders of the party were present during the congress, even though the papers contained their signatures.[84] Navalny reacted to that with a tweet saying, "[…] A salvo of all guns".[85] Following the mayoral election, on 15 September 2013, Navalny declared he would join and, possibly, head the party.[86] On 17 November 2013 Navalny was elected as the leader of the party.[87]

On 8 January 2014, Navalny's party filed documents for registration for the second time.[88] On 20 January, registration of the party was suspended;[89] according to Russian laws, no two parties can share a name.[90] On 8 February 2014, Navalny's party changed its name to "Progress Party".[91] On 25 February 2014, the party was registered, and[92] at this point, had six months to register regional branches in at least half of the federal subjects of Russia.[f] On 26 September 2014, the party declared it had registered 43 regional branches.[94] An unnamed source of Izvestia in the ministry said registrations completed after the six-month term would not be taken into consideration, adding, "Yes, trials are taking place in some regions […] they cannot register new branches in other regions during the trials, because the main term is over". Navalny's blog countered, "Our answer is simple. A six-month term for registration has been legally prolonged ad interim prosecution of appeals of denials and registration suspensions".[94]
Navalny's election campaign in 2013

On 1 February 2015, the party held a convention, where Navalny stated the party was preparing for the 2016 elections, declaring the party would maintain its activity across Russia, saying, "We are unabashed to work in remote lands where the opposition does not work. We can even [work] in Crimea". The candidates the party would appoint were to be chosen via primary elections; however, he added, the party's candidates may be removed from elections.[95] On 17 April 2015, the party initiated a coalition of democratic parties.[96] On 28 April 2015, the party was deprived of registration by the Ministry of Justice, which stated the party had not registered the required number of regional branches within six months after the official registration.[97] Krainev claimed that the party could be eliminated only by the Supreme Court, and he added that not all trials of registration of regional branches were over, calling the verdict "illegal twice". He 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.[98] The next day, the party officially challenged the verdict.