This podcast is a recording of the event “Navalny and Next: Possibilities, Prognosis and Perceptions in Russia” held on March 15, 2021. This event was sponsored by the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, Russia Matters and the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

After a botched attempt to poison Alexei Navalny in August 2020, the Kremlin has decided to sentence him to over two years in prison upon the oppositionist’s return to Russia in January. Navalny responded with a bombshell video about the corruption around “Putin’s Palace.” Unsanctioned, mass protests that filled the two capitals and tens of provincial cities resulted. The protesters were met with indiscriminate arrests and police violence. The political ante in this back-and-forth has certainly risen, but to what end?

Russia has experienced the ebbs and flows of protest on the federal and local level for years. And while each eruption quickly elicits a sense that Russia is at a turning point, more cautious and sober assessments follow in the weeks and months after. So, is what we’re now seeing something new or more of the same? What do the protests suggest about Russian society, politics and the state of Putin’s power? These discussions are especially important, as Russia will hold parliamentary elections in September.

Listen to the podcast here.

Photo by Michał Siergiejevicz shared under a Creative Commons license.