The Wall Street Journal reported that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has utilized his media talents to rally against Vladimir Putin's government. The newspaper noted that Navalny has leveraged his organizations to keep himself in the public eye, despite being imprisoned after returning to the country from a medical trip.
Navalny has over 6.5 million subscribers on YouTube and has used Instagram and Telegram to promote his ideas about improving public services and living standards in the country. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for violating the terms of his parole in a previous corruption case and is imprisoned in the Pokrov camp, located 100 kilometers east of Moscow, which is considered one of the most stringent prisons in Russia.
Navalny began a hunger strike to demand proper medical care, a move that some observers believe was also aimed at ensuring he remained in the spotlight after his imprisonment. Navalny returned to Russia in January from Germany, where he underwent treatment following what supporters and Western officials say was an assassination attempt via poisoning, knowing that his fate would be imprisonment that could sideline the only opposition leader who has annoyed President Putin for years.
The opposition figure blamed the Kremlin for the poisoning attempt, which the latter denies. Moscow City Council member Sergey Mitrokhin, who first met Navalny 20 years ago while in the national parliament, said, "He has always paid a lot of attention to public relations." He added, "Perhaps this ability to use public relations is the main feature of his personality."
Russian authorities have moved to declare Navalny's political movement, including his anti-corruption foundation, an extremist organization, placing it on par with terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda.
