Aleksey Navalnyy

Aleksey Navalny is a Russian political and public figure, lawyer, investment activist, and former member of the board of directors of Aeroflot. He is the author of one of the highest-rated civic and political blogs on LiveJournal. He is known for his publications on corruption in Russia. A leader of the Russian opposition.

He is the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, which brings together subsidiary projects aimed at combating corruption and state propaganda (“Rospil,” “RosYama,” “RosVybory,” “Good Truth Machine,” “RosZhKKh”).

Since November 17, 2013, he has headed the Central Council of the liberal political party Civic Platform.

He took part in the 2013 Moscow mayoral election, where he came in second, losing to Sergei Sobyanin in the first round and receiving 632,697 votes (27.24% of the total number of votes cast).

Since the early 2010s, he has been involved as a defendant, witness, and suspect in a number of criminal, administrative, and arbitration cases. On July 18, 2013, the Leninsky District Court of Kirov found him guilty of embezzling property belonging to the state company Kirovles and sentenced him to five years in a penal colony under general-regime conditions. He was taken into custody in the courtroom and placed in pretrial detention, but the next day the Kirov Regional Court changed the preventive measure to a written undertaking not to leave the area, as a result of which Navalny was released. Navalny’s supporters, as well as major human rights organizations, a number of experts, and foreign states, condemned the verdict, calling it politically motivated. According to the Levada Center, 46% of respondents in Russia linked the opposition leader’s persecution to his anti-corruption activities, while 32% believed that he had been tried “in connection with his unlawful actions as adviser to the governor of the Kirov Region.” Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his view of the verdict at a meeting with participants of the Seliger forum, calling it “strange.” On October 16, the Kirov Regional Court modified Navalny’s conviction, imposing a suspended sentence.

In 2013, the