Until last week, he was the one whose name was never mentioned.
Alexeï Navalny like the sorcerer Voldemort, eternal adversary of Harry Potter, did not exist more or less in the Russian state media universe.
Vladimir Putin was the first to take great care never to name his fiercest political opponent.
Now, that time seems over with the many demonstrations to denounce the corruption of the Russian regime and the new arrest of the opposition leader, whose trial is taking place on Tuesday.
According to the prosecution, he "systematically violated" the conditions of a three-and-a-half-year suspended prison sentence handed down in 2014, therefore considering that the sentence should be carried out.
“It is often said that Navalny is very little known in Russia.
Polls from May 2013 found that 59% of Russians had never heard of him.
In 2020, that figure fell to 18%.
He has gained a lot of notoriety, ”analyzes Michel Eltchaninoff, author of“ In the head of Vladimir Poutine ”.
For this philosopher, the perception of Navalny in Russia has changed a lot in recent times.
“According to the same poll (Levada center), 20% of Russians approve of his actions against 6% in 2013. It's a big change, before he was mostly popular in big cities.
But he succeeded in creating an activist network in all regions, ”notes this connoisseur of Russian news.
"He gained recognition"
A new reality for the opponent that he synthesized in a few words last summer: "I have been in politics for a long time, I am often arrested [...] it is simply a part of life", he relativized .
“I do my favorite job, people support me, I have a lot of supporters.
What can make a man happier?
".
“Certainly he has gained recognition.
But there is a gap between the West, where he alone embodies opposition to Putin, and in Russia, where there is a wider political field.
All the opponents of the regime do not recognize themselves in his face and some accuse him of going it alone, without advancing a real party or without having condemned the invasion of Crimea, for example, ”nuance Anna Colin Lebedev, lecturer at Paris-Nanterre University.
In fact, the one who escaped poisoning last summer is supported by a growing part of the population.
A not insignificant part of the youth is fed up with Putin and Navalny embodies something other than the one they have always known.
"His anti-corruption speech, and his investigations on Medvedev or today on Putin's palace are very successful on social networks and have helped to popularize it," recalls Michel Eltchaninoff.
“These investigations are well documented.
He has credibility through his work.
If we add that the defense of the Kremlin is clumsy… Everyone in Russia laughs about Putin's palace, which would only be the apartment hotel of a billionaire.
It makes people want to go and demonstrate, ”even the specialist of the former Soviet empire quipped.
"He assumes himself as someone who wants to become president"
And the accusations of ultranationalism made against the opponent?
Are the Russians sensitive to it?
“It is rather in the West that we talk about its nationalist past.
In Russia, those who are interested in him know his political background perfectly.
His blog is accessible to everyone and he has not deleted his old comments, ”specifies Michel Eltchaninoff.
“In the 2010s, he wanted to rally a wider electorate and he then had xenophobic words vis-à-vis migrants.
He addressed an electorate hysterized with nationalism, out of political ambition, but it did not work.
The Russians are not shocked.
He is a
patriot
and it is not frowned upon in Russia.
Today it has changed and focuses on corruption ”.
And corruption, which is a real scourge, is one of the driving forces that push the Russians to demonstrate.
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“There is no politician who is not complex.
He is not an angel, but above all he is not a simple dissident, not a moral conscience like Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
He assumes himself as someone who wants to become president ”, further decrypts our specialist.
His return to Russia, knowing that he would be imprisoned, marked the spirits.
“The courage he has shown gives him a moral posture that he did not have before.
Even the most skeptical Russians would say today that the real anti-Putin figure is Navalny ”, notes Anna Colin Lebedev, teacher-researcher and specialist in“ protest and collective action in Russia ”.
