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Alexei Navalny (1976–2024) -

Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny was born on June 4, 1976, in Butyn, in the Soviet Union. He studied law, graduating in 1998. He later earned an economics degree before joining Yabloko, a political party that promoted liberal democracy and a market economy. In 2000, he married Yulia Abrosimova. Yulia would stand by Navalny's side for years at protests and court hearings.

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December 2009 -

In April 2004, Navalny became Chief of Staff of the Moscow branch of Yabloko, where he remained until February 2007. He later became part of a small but determined group of Russian bloggers challenging corrupt bureaucrats, rallying public opinion, and goading prosecutors into action. His blogs attracted unanticipated popularity, reflecting deep-seated anger at the high-handed behavior of officials in Vladimir Putin's government. Navalny is pictured in his Moscow office on December 17, 2009.

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December 2010 -

In December 2010, Navalny launched the whistleblowing website RosPil (a Russian abbreviation for "Russian Saw"—saw being slang for "to embezzle"). 

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June 2011 -

Throughout the early 2000s, Navalny focused his efforts primarily on anti-corruption activities by publishing corruption allegations against state-run corporations. On June 11, 2011, he spoke at a summer camp outside Moscow to an audience of anti-Kremlin opposition activists, bloggers, environmentalists, and human rights defenders. That same year, Navalny established the Anti-Corruption Foundation, a nonprofit organization revealing government corruption.

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December 2011 -

In the wake of what many saw as the rigging of parliamentary elections, Alexei Navalny spoke in front of tens of thousands of people at a rally in Moscow on December 24, 2011, challenging the result which saw the United Russia Party claim a dubious victory. Along with hundreds of people, Navalny was arrested and sentenced to 15 days in jail.

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March 2012 -

Vladimir Putin's reelection as president in 2012 was met with widespread protest. Among those challenging the result was Alexei Navalny. He was one of dozens arrested in Moscow's Pushkinskaya Square on March 5, 2012, as police broke up the gathering.

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October 2012 -

Arrest and detention was now part of Alexei Navalny's everyday life. He's seen here being seized by police on October 27, 2012, during a protest staged by about 200 people near the headquarters of Russia's Federal Security Service after an opposition leader had been arrested and allegedly tortured.

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July 2013 -

As Alexei Navalny's popularity grew, so did the Russian authorities' determination to stifle his voice. On  July 18, 2013, in Kirov, Navalny was found guilty of embezzlement and handed down a five-year suspended sentenced. Many critics of the Russian government believed the conviction was politically motivated.

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September 2013 -

Despite his conviction, Navalny was able to run for mayor of Moscow. He garnered a respectable 27% of the votes.

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December 2014 -

Navalny's activism continued into 2014. In December of that year, he received a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence on fraud charges; his brother, Oleg, was imprisoned for three and a half years for the same offense. Both are pictured waiting for the verdict.

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February 2015 -

On February 1, 2015, during a convention of his Party of Progress in Moscow, the vociferous Kremlin critic announced a mass protest in March calling for President Vladimir Putin to step down over his handling of the economic crisis engulfing the country.

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February 2016 -

The murder of Boris Nemtsov on February 27, 2015, sent shockwaves through opposition circles. Another outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, Nemtsov was gunned down in Moscow as he was preparing to organize a rally against the Russian annexation of Crimea. Pictured attending a mass rally marking the one-year anniversary of the assassination is Navalny and his wife Yulia.

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January 2018 -

On January 24, 2018, Alexei Navalny and his lawyer, Olga Mikhaylova, arrived at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for a fresh hearing after the court in February condemned Moscow for subjecting him to disproportionate arrests.

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March 2018 -

Back in 2016, Navalny had announced he'd run for the presidency, which he was banned from doing because of his previous convictions. In 2018, Putin won an unprecedented fourth term in office. Navalny, pictured in the office of his Anti-Corruption Foundation, described the result as a sham meant to "re-appoint" Vladimir Putin on his way to becoming "emperor for life."

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April 2019 -

Alexei Navalny maintained a high profile throughout 2019. In April, he held a public meeting with independent candidates for the Moscow State Duma elections scheduled for September. His presence on stage resembled that of a rock star.

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June 2019 -

Inevitably, arrest and incarceration followed. On June 12, Navalny was detained by police officers during a march to protest against the alleged impunity of law enforcement agencies in central Moscow. More than 50 people met the same fate.

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December 2019 -

On December 26, 2019, Russian police conducted fresh searches at Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, with his team calling the raid a new bid to disrupt their work. Russia's most prominent opposition leader was beginning to feel the strain.

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August 2020 -

The poisoning of Alexei Navalny in August 2020 appalled much of the world. He was hospitalized in the Siberian city of Omsk after falling ill and losing consciousness while on a domestic flight over the region. Pictured is Yulia Navalnaya and Anti-Corruption Foundation director Ivan Zhdanov outside Omsk Emergency Hospital No. 1 after visiting the stricken opposition leader.

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August 2020 -

Fearing for his life, Yulia had her husband airlifted to Charité hospital in Berlin for treatment. German doctors later ascertained that Navalny had been poisoned with a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent, likely administered by spiking a cup of tea he drank in a Siberian hotel. Pictured arriving at Charité hospital is the ambulance carrying Navalny.

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January 2021 -

Despite being warned that he'd be jailed if he returned to Russia, Alexei Navalny opted to fly back to his homeland. Accompanied by his wife and a sizeable press corps, he landed in the Russian capital on January 17, 2021.

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January 2021 -

Navalny and his wife Yulia are pictured riding on a bus from their plane to a terminal of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.

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January 2021 -

Predictably, Navalny was detained shortly after stepping back on Russian soil. Seemingly unperturbed by his detention, the opposition leader urged Russians to stage mass anti-government protests during a January 18 court hearing after his arrest that saw him jailed for 30 days.

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January 2021 -

Heeding his call, thousands took to the streets in Moscow protesting Navalny's detention.

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January 2021 -

Navalny was seen appealing his arrest and incarceration on a screen set up at a hall of the Moscow Regional Court via a video link from Moscow's penal detention center Number 1 (known as Matrosskaya Tishina).

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February 2021 -

Navalny's appeal fell on deaf ears. Instead, he was sentenced to a further two and a half years in prison for parole violation. He's pictured standing inside a glass cell at the Babushkinsky district court in Moscow on February 20 during his trial. While in prison, Navalny staged a three-week hunger strike to protest against a lack of medical treatment and sleep.

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December 2021 -

At the end of 2021, the jailed Navalny was awarded the Sakharov prize, an honorary award for individuals or groups who have dedicated their lives to the defense of human rights and freedom of thought. Navalny's daughter, Daria,  accepted the honor on his behalf during a ceremony at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on December 15.

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March 2022 -

On March 22, 2022, one month into Russia's disastrous invasion of Ukraine, Alexei Navalny was sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court, in a case his supporters rejected as fabricated. Navalny was transferred to the notorious IK-6 maximum-security prison in Melekhovo, roughly 150 miles (240 km) east of Moscow.

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March 2023 -

Navalny's work in exposing crime and corruption in Russia is the theme of 'Navalny.' Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in March 2023, where it won the Audience Award, the powerful exposé also won Best Documentary Feature at the 95th Academy Awards.

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April 2023 -

Meanwhile, Alexei Navalny's health was quickly deteriorating behind bars. Appearing on a video link from prison colony IK-6 during an appeal hearing, the opposition leader complained of stomach pain and spoke of facing new "extremism" and "terrorism" charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.

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August 2023 -

Navalny's hopes of a successful appeal were dashed. In a subsequent statement, he expected his sentence to be "huge, … a Stalinist term," referring to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. On August 4, 2023, he was convicted and received a 19-year prison sentence. He was again transferred, this time to the remote IK-3 penal colony deep within the Arctic Circle.

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January 2024 -

Navalny appeared on screen via a video link from IK-3 on January 11, during a hearing of his complaint on restrictions placed on which books and reading material he could access in prison. This was the last time the outside world saw Russia's opposition leader alive.

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February 2024 -

On February 16, 2024, a state media report citing the prison service announced that Alexei Navalny had died. Days later, his wife Yulia vowed to continue his work.

Sources: (Britannica) (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (ABC News) (The Guardian) 

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