Racist or revolutionary: The complex legacy of Alexei Navalny

This article was published in July 2023 before the reported death of Navalny on 16 February 2024.

Alexei Navalny is a many-sided man.

The 45-year-old is a lawyer turned blogger, YouTuber, protest organiser, anti-corruption activist and face of Russia's opposition. 

He is currently in prison in Russia on charges of extremism, which supporters say are politically motivated. 

Speaking in court recently, Navalny added yet another face to his character by urging his fans to campaign against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

What identity is paramount depends on who you ask, explains Jade McGlynn a researcher specialising in Russian politics at King's College London.

For Russian supporters – mostly social media-savvy young people – Navalny is a rare figurehead for anti-establishment feeling.

Many outside Russia came to know him from the Oscar-winning, self-titled documentary based on the events related to his poisoning with a nerve agent in Russia and the subsequent investigation in 2020.

That helped cement Navalny's identity as a powerful opponent of Vladimir Putin and elevated him in the eyes of the West. The Russian president refuses to refer to him by name even to this day, typically calling him "that gentleman". 

Yet there is a darker side to him, some say. 

Navalny's 'ideal' image conflicts with his past remarks, McGlynn tells Euronews, pointing to his controversial views on Muslims in the Caucasus, Georgians and Central Asian migrants in Russia.  

"Immigrants from Central Asia bring in drugs [to Russia]," Navalny said in an interview in 2012, defending what he described as a "realist" visa requirement for "wonderful people from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan."

While he has reflected on some of these past remarks, they frequently