"You may now think that I am crazy, and you are all normal, because you can not swim against the current," Alexey Navalny, Russia's most famous opposition leader, addressed the judges and bailiffs at his another trial in July 2023. — I think you're the one who's gone mad. You have a single, God-given life, and what did you decide to spend it on? To put robes on your shoulders and black masks on your head and protect those who are also robbing you? To help someone who has ten palaces build the eleventh?"

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A few days later, Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in prison for financing extremism, creating an extremist community and calling for extremism on the Internet. By this time, Navalny was already in prison, where a closed trial of him was held.
 
In the summer of 2020, Navalny became ill on board of the plane, the politician fell into a coma and was hospitalized in one of the clinics in Omsk. Due to public pressure, Navalny was transferred to the Charite clinic in Germany a few days later. The German government said that Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent of the Novichok group. Independent journalistic investigations later proved that the FSB tried to kill Navalny, the same agents tried to poison the politician Vladimir Kara-Murza (twice), the writer Dmitry Bykov and other opposition figures.
 
Despite the obvious risk of incarceration, Navalny returned to Russia in January 2021. He was arrested right at the airport. First, the politician was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison, then the term was increased up to 9 years. As Navalny himself said, during the year and a half he spoke at the courts with the last words seven times, which in his opinion "turns into a comedy."
 
The latest sentence is striking not only because of the gigantic length of time, but also because a public politician was sent to a "special regime", which is usually assigned to real terrorists and serial killers. Such convicts are never allowed to turn off the light in their cell, not allowed to communicate with their cellmates, and neither see their relatives or write letters for the first 10 years of their sentence. 
 
In recent years, Russian authorities have got over not only with Navalny himself: Navalny's regional headquarters and his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) have been recognized as extremist organizations as well. Dozens of criminal cases were initiated against former employees: Lilia Chanysheva received 7.5 years in prison, the coordinator of the Barnaul headquarters Vadim Ostanin – 9 years, the technical director of the Navalny-LIVE YouTube channel Daniel Kholodny – 8 years.
 
Despite the politician's arrest, his team continues to work from abroad and produce anti-corruption investigations about Russian officials.

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On February 16, 2024, 47-year-old Navalny died in a colony. His comrade Ilya Yashin (also imprisoned) said: “Navalny was Putin's key opponent in Russia and aroused hatred in the Kremlin. Putin had both motive and opportunity. I am convinced that he ordered the killing."