Alexei Navalny's death in a Siberian gulag has nipped in the bud what many saw as the clearest path to Russia's eventual democratization. It is too risky to pin all hopes of democratizing a country on one person.
Russian nationalism brought the most destructive conflict in Europe since the Second World War. Anyone who shows these tendencies, as Navalny has for years, must consequently be treated with caution. The West would be far better served by confronting the threat of Russian irredentism.