Five months after surviving an assassination attempt, Alexei Navalny says he’s finally coming home this weekend. And he is doing so at a very perilous moment when Vladimir Putin is taking off the gloves.
Navaly is returning home at a time when Putin’s regime has filed new trumped-up criminal charges against him.
He is returning home at a time when the Kremlin is waging a fresh crackdown on dissent, with new restrictions and repressions aimed at street demonstrations, free expression online, and foreign media.
But Navalny’s homecoming also comes when Putin’s popularity is at an all-time low and popular discontent at an all-time high.
And, by the way, Russia is already gearing up for parliamentary elections this year.
The battle lines are being drawn. So hold onto your hats, this should be a wild ride.
The Power Vertical Podcast is produced by The University of Texas at Arlington’s Charles T. McDowell Center for Global Studies and the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.
Photo: “Russian march on the day of national unity in the Moscow district of Lublino.” November 2011.
