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Alexei A. Navalny built Russia’s largest opposition group in his image, embodying a freer and fairer Russia for millions of people. His exile team now faces the difficult task of steering the political movement without him.
The movement is led by Mr. Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, and is presenting herself as the new face of the opposition to President Vladimir V. Putin. Navalny, 47, is supported by a close-knit team of her husband’s lieutenants who took over running Navalny’s political network after her imprisonment in 2021.
Maintaining political momentum will be a challenge. In modern history, there are very few examples in which a leader who embodied an anti-establishment movement was able to maintain the status quo after his death, let alone seize power. And so far, Navalny’s team has made little attempt to unite Russia’s fragmented opposition and win new allies by coordinating its closed, tightly controlled approach. .
Kira Yarmysh, a spokeswoman for Navalny’s team, did not respond to questions or requests for an interview. So did several of Navalny’s closest aides.
Navalny’s aides have said in public statements that the movement needs to change to continue confronting Putin without their leader, but it is unclear what the new strategy will be.
Navalny’s chief political organizer Leonid Volkov said that even from prison, Navalny “managed to support us and instill optimism in us.” “They were able to develop ideas, come up with projects, and come up with cool political ideas.” Social media last month. “Without Alexei, things will not be as they were before.”
However, Volkov added: “We do not have a concrete plan of action.”
Photographs last week of thousands of Russians paying their respects to Mr. Navalny at a cemetery despite threats of repression gave Mr. Navalny political momentum. Her ability to channel this impulse into lasting political force will be tested in this month’s Russian presidential election.
Mr. Putin is almost certain to win a fourth six-year term in a vote in which there are no real competitors. But to break through the government’s narrative of widespread support for her, Navalnaya first began her efforts with the support of her husband. She is calling on voters to head to the polls at 12pm on March 17, the last day of her three-day voting period.
Supporters of the initiative say what voters do after they go to the polls is less important than simply being there and registering to protest a fake election.
“We are many people and we can show that we are strong,” Navalnaya said. In a video released Wednesday.
By framing the effort, dubbed “Midday Against Putin,” as a tribute to Mr. Navalny, Mr. Navalny cast himself as his political successor.
But staking the political capital of Mr. Navalny’s movement on expressions of civil disobedience that are dangerous and difficult to measure could also expose the limits of Mr. Navalny’s power.
“If no one comes out, my perception of this country will change,” said Maxim Reznik, one of the initiative’s authors and a former local lawmaker from St. Petersburg in exile. “Are people so afraid that everything is hopeless?”
Navalnaya has long shied away from the public eye, but through her sharply staged, focused monologues and poignant speeches to Western policymakers, shown in short YouTube videos, Navalnaya has made her point about politics. You are starting to build a persona.
However, she avoided giving news media interviews or going off-script at other public events.
She is supported by a team of about four other people who were senior aides to Mr. Volkov and Mr. Navalny. Most of them are in their 30s and have worked alongside Mr. Navalny for years while challenging the government.
After the government labeled Navalny’s movement as extremist in 2021, his team moved to Vilnius, Lithuania, citing its proximity to Russia and physical security. At least seven people who remained and worked for Navalny as activists and lawyers have since been jailed in Russia.
In Vilnius, Navalny’s team set up a number of offices, conference rooms and a broadcast studio in a central office building that became the headquarters for his political group, the Anti-Corruption Foundation.
The team promotes diverse political initiatives in Russia, investigates corruption in the Russian government, and collaborates with numerous researchers, activists, and media outlets whose YouTube videos draw millions of viewers each month in Russia. Supervising experts. The movement also claims to have thousands of underground volunteers in Russia.
In Vilnius, Navalny’s supporters are largely isolated from the broader community of Russian dissidents who moved to the Lithuanian capital after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The two countries also maintain arm-in-arm relations with the Lithuanian government, which is adamantly opposed to Mr. Putin but views the people of the former occupied country with a degree of suspicion, the terms state. According to two Lithuanian officials who accompanied him to discuss policy, they declined to be named.
Navalny’s team has not asked for financial support from the Lithuanian state and has distanced itself from the country’s security services, officials said. They explained this stance as a desire to maintain independence and protect themselves from the Russian government.
Navalny’s team has not disclosed how it will pay for its operations. Its last financial report, published in 2021, showed the movement covered three-quarters of its expenses that year with private donations.
For Navalny’s supporters, his allies’ emphasis on self-sufficiency is a result of years of politics in a repressive state, and they are eager to break it. They combined the latest internet technology with shoe leather’s local activities, resulting in a movement that blended elements of a tech startup with his 19th century revolutionary cells.
But some of their collaborators believe that Navalny’s team’s insularity, confidence in its technical capabilities, and certainty in its course of action will allow them to build a broader, more inclusive political movement that will outlive its founders. Some privately acknowledge that they may be missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Mr. Navalny has long had an edge over other Russian opposition figures. When he ran for mayor of Moscow in 2013, the only election he was allowed to participate in, he received 27% of the vote. According to his supporters, the result was enough for the government to accelerate its campaign against Navalny, which resulted in his death in prison on February 16.
Navalny’s team has long eschewed news media, preferring instead to broadcast messages through social media channels, including television-style news programs.
After Mr. Navalny’s death, some of his aides gave interviews to Russian journalists seen as sympathetic to their cause, but avoided talking to international news media.
The limits of the team’s arbitrary strategy were exposed at a vigil held in front of the Russian embassy in Vilnius to commemorate Navalny’s death. Other opposition activists in the city said Navalny’s inner circle had not publicly promoted the rally, which drew dozens of people.
Navalny and his subsequent team have long justified their aversion to political alliances by saying that their time and energy would be better spent on political activities. His unparalleled political network within Russia means his team needs far fewer such alliances than other opposition parties in the country.
Condolences poured in for Navalny from across Russia’s opposition parties, raising hopes that his successor would try a more inclusive approach. But Navalny’s team quickly resumed spat with critics.
Amid a heated exchange of messages on social media over Navalny’s burial, Ivan Zhdanov, the head of Navalny’s investigation team, last week wrote to prominent opposition blogger Maxim Katz to “just run.” Ta.
Mr. Navalny was one of the opposition politicians who suggested that despite people’s potentially different and even negative views of Mr. Navalny, he still supported his right to a dignified burial. Attacked Boris B. Nadezhin.
“Alexei was a hero,” Navalnaya wrote in response to Nadezhdin, who was banned from running against Putin in March’s general elections. “I will not allow people to have diverse opinions about him.”
Alina Lobzina and thomas dapkus I contributed a report from Vilnius. neil mfarquhar From New York.
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