Alexei Navalny: The Bravest Man on Earth

Vladimir Putin’s intended strategy to dispose of his most outspoken foe seems evident: slow-motion assassination. Russia’s hero for our time, Alexei Navalny, sits in Penal Colony No. 2 awaiting his fate, which is probably death by disease. Conditions are so bad in the prison, which is currently beset by a tuberculosis outbreak, that Putin can simply let the institution do his dirty work for him. Navalny is being tortured in his cell — guards wake him up eight times a night to deny him rest — and as he complains of a cough (though a high fever he cited earlier this week has subsided) he seems not to be getting platinum-club medical care. He has two herniated disks and is starting to lose feeling in his hands, according to his lawyers, citing an MRI scan. He has lost 30 pounds in the past three weeks.

Navalny, 44, is the world’s greatest journalist (his exposé of what is thought to be Putin’s billion-dollar Black Sea palace, which is so ornate it would make a Romanov blush, was the scoop of the century). He is also our leading dissident (he tirelessly campaigns against the authoritarianism and corruption of the Putin regime) and a fantastically gifted entertainer. Picture a Borat who, instead of ridiculing easy targets at no risk of anything except possibly of spraining a wrist picking up all of the awards sent his way, actually rides out into the wilds to oppose one of the world’s most evil men, under constant threat of assassination. That’s the best way to understand how Navalny, going undercover posing as an agent of state security, managed to get on tape a phone interview with one of his own (failed) assassins. Navalny even got the would-be murderer to explain how he did it: by putting the lethal nerve agent Novichok in Navalny’s underwear when he was campaigning against Putinism in Siberia. Navalny then got on a flight (to Moscow) that was so long that the killers assumed Navalny would be dead by the time the plane landed, but instead the pilot made an emergency landing and called an ambulance. First aid extended Navalny’s life. His wife arranged for him to get first-world attention in a German hospital, but even so he spent five weeks in a coma.

About the Author

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

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Vladimir Putin’s intended strategy to dispose of his most outspoken foe seems evident: slow-motion assassination. Russia’s hero for our time, Alexei Navalny, sits in Penal Colony No. 2 awaiting his fate, which is probably death by disease. Conditions are so bad in the prison, which is currently beset by a tuberculosis outbreak, that Putin can simply let the institution do his dirty work for him. Navalny is being tortured in his cell — guards wake him up eight times a night to deny him rest — and as he complains of a cough (though a high fever he cited earlier this week has subsided) he seems not to be getting platinum-club medical care. He has two herniated disks and is starting to lose feeling in his hands, according to his lawyers, citing an MRI scan. He has lost 30 pounds in the past three weeks.

Navalny, 44, is the world’s greatest journalist (his exposé of what is thought to be Putin’s billion-dollar Black Sea palace, which is so ornate it would make a Romanov blush, was the scoop of the century). He is also our leading dissident (he tirelessly campaigns against the authoritarianism and corruption of the Putin regime) and a fantastically gifted entertainer. Picture a Borat who, instead of ridiculing easy targets at no risk of anything except possibly of spraining a wrist picking up all of the awards sent his way, actually rides out into the wilds to oppose one of the world’s most evil men, under constant threat of assassination. That’s the best way to understand how Navalny, going undercover posing as an agent of state security, managed to get on tape a phone interview with one of his own (failed) assassins. Navalny even got the would-be murderer to explain how he did it: by putting the lethal nerve agent Novichok in Navalny’s underwear when he was campaigning against Putinism in Siberia. Navalny then got on a flight (to Moscow) that was so long that the killers assumed Navalny would be dead by the time the plane landed, but instead the pilot made an emergency landing and called an ambulance. First aid extended Navalny’s life. His wife arranged for him to get first-world attention in a German hospital, but even so he spent five weeks in a coma.