Navalny

Alexei Navalny is a Russian opposition politician and the founder of the country's largest independent anti-corruption organizations. He began his public career in the 2000s, having earned degrees in law and economics, working in business, and being a member of the Yabloko party. Navalny first gained widespread fame in the blogosphere as a minority shareholder, acquiring small stakes in major state-owned companies such as Gazprom and Rosneft in response to a legal requirement to disclose their financial statements and internal audits. He later launched the large-scale RosPil project to combat fraud in public procurement, and in 2011, he coined the popular term "Party of Crooks and Thieves." At that time, Navalny became one of the main leaders of the mass protests for fair elections on Bolotnaya Square. In 2013, he secured his electoral success, winning over 27% of the vote in the Moscow mayoral election and finishing second. In the following years, his team created the Anti-Corruption Foundation and established a network of regional offices across Russia, while the politician himself developed the "Smart Voting" strategy to consolidate votes against government candidates. Today, the structures he created are recognized in Russia as extremist and terrorist organizations, and any cooperation with them or domestic financing is prohibited by law. Most of the politician's team was forced to relocate abroad, from where they continue to publish anti-corruption investigations to an audience of millions. Currently, Navalny's organizations are conducting an active digital campaign ahead of the State Duma elections, developing projects against internet censorship, and his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, coordinates key political initiatives internationally.