Watch: Biden blames Putin for Alexei Navalny's death
President Joe Biden addressed the nation and said that “Putin” was responsible for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The reported death of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Friday has left many young Russians devastated by the loss of the person they called their last hope for a liberal, democratic Russia.
Navalny, who initially rose to prominence as an anti-corruption blogger, caught the attention of liberal Russians for leading the “White Ribbon” protests in 2011 against Vladimir Putin's decision to return to the presidency after six years as prime minister.
But it was Navalny's charisma, his wry sense of humor and his stubborn refusal to go into exile outside Russia that helped him win over a number of young, liberal-minded Russians.
Prison authorities reported that Navalny, 47, died in a remote penal colony in the Arctic after collapsing after a walk. The news of the opposition leader's death caused a stir around the world. President Joe Biden quickly blamed Putin and alerted the Russian leader that the U.S. would consider consequences.
Although Navalny never won a political election, his allies and supporters often insisted that if he survived imprisonment and the Putin regime, he could become president and set the country on a completely different political path.
His death, exactly a month before Russia's 2024 presidential election, dashed the hopes of a generation that had never had the chance to vote for Navalny.
“Symbol of childish bravery”
Dasha, a Russian student studying in Los Angeles, said she plans to return to Russia in the summer to visit her family. Now she feels “a feeling of fear” about the upcoming trip.
Dasha and other Russian citizens interviewed by USA TODAY agreed to speak on the condition that they would only be identified by their first names because they feared retaliation against them and their family members back home.
“This just reinforces the harsh reality my parents warned me about,” Dasha said. “There is no appeal in returning to a country run by people willing to commit murder.”
Navalny has served several prison sentences, including a more recent 19-year sentence for “extremism” that a court handed him in August. He had been detained since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow just months after being poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent in a botched assassination attempt.
“What happened to Navalny is even more evidence of Putin’s brutality,” Biden said during a news conference on Friday. “No one should be fooled.”
21-year-old Yana decided to leave her hometown in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Now in Israel, Yana said she rarely thought about returning home, but when she did, it was always because of Navalny.
“He was this symbol of childlike courage,” she said.
“I always thought, 'If Lesha becomes president, I might think about returning,'” Yana added, referring to Navalny with a diminutive of his first name.
“Beacon of hope for Russia’s future”
Dasha said she viewed Navalny “as the last courageous voice standing in a landscape of fear and oppression.”
“Navalny symbolized the beacon of hope for me and for the future of Russia,” she added.
Matthew, a recent college graduate living in Moscow, said in Russian that he and others his age viewed Navalny as “the most striking example of open opposition in modern Russia.”
While news of Navalny's reported death did not immediately spark massive public protests in Russia's largest cities – likely due to repressive laws banning protests – videos circulating on Telegram, a social media channel, showed hundreds of people in major cities , who laid flowers at makeshift memorials honoring Navalny.
Some videos also showed Russian police arresting some mourners. According to OVD-Info, a Moscow-based independent human rights group and information service focused on politics, about 100 people in eight cities were arrested by Russian police on Saturday as they tried to lay flowers and attend various vigils related to Navalny's death Persecution in Russia.
Matthew said that he is personally still struggling to process Navalny's death, but when the “realization comes to him, the fact of his death is disheartening, takes away hope and puts you in a state of numbness.”
However, Matthew said that Russians like him would not give up their dreams of political change in Russia.
“Navalny says that if he dies, you shouldn’t give up hope,” Matthew said, referring to a 2022 documentary about Navalny’s recovery after the assassination.
“Hope lives in each of us,” he said. “We have to take care of our family and friends, develop ourselves personally and never run away from somewhere, but pursue the goal – like Navalny did.”
“We all have to believe”
The future of the opposition in Russia was already unclear before Navalny's death, with other opposition figures either exiled outside the country or imprisoned and in poor health, such as Vladimir Kara-Murza.
Kara-Murza was convicted of treason and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Kara-Murza, who survived two poisoning attempts that he blamed on the Kremlin, was arrested and jailed shortly after condemning the Russian invasion in a speech to the Arizona House of Representatives in March 2022.
Although public figures and ordinary Russian citizens said Navalny's death was a major setback, it may not mean the end of the opposition movement against Putin, who is expected to win next month's election.
Mikhail Zygar, the founding editor of independent Russian news channel TV Rain, wrote in a statement: “We will not give up.”
Zygar, who left Russia days after the invasion of Ukraine, said Navalny would serve as a role model and inspiration for the future of the Russian opposition.
“We will always have Alexei Navalny with us as an ideal example,” Zygar wrote. “As a superhero for many generations. As a man whose story children will grow up with.”
Dasha, who has only lived under Putin's regime, said the opposition cannot be complacent.
“As we live in a Russia where Putin has always been in power, we face the frightening prospect of waiting for his death as the only realistic trigger for change,” she said. “I hope it pushes us to become more politically engaged and recognize that the current regime suppresses dissent and perpetuates injustice.”
Yana described Navalny, like Zygar, as a “superhuman” but struck a more pessimistic tone about what his death meant for Russia.
She said that even when some young Russians became disillusioned with their country after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, “any motivational speeches or slogans always included Alexey's name.”
“Even after the war in Ukraine started, many people kept saying these sentences,” she said. “They won’t do that anymore.”
However, Zygar wrote that Navalny “will be the 'founding father' of the new Russia.”
“Many people seriously believed that there was no democracy in the world and no freedom of expression, only propaganda everywhere and that there was no such thing as fair justice. But Alexei believed in all of these values,” Zygar wrote. “And he gave his life for it.”
“So now we all have to believe,” he added. “And the next generations will grow up and learn by watching him – and they will believe too.