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The Washington Post: He is a jailed opposition leader who has challenged Vladimir Putin’s rule. He has condemned the conflict in Ukraine and says Moscow should withdraw its troops and pay reparations. He is half Ukrainian. And yet Alexei Navalny is distrusted, if not despised, in Ukraine.
Events in Ukraine have put him in a political quandary: he has been forced to change and clarify his previous statements. He denied Ukrainian identity because he believed that Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians were one people. He said that Crimea was an integral part of Russia, unjustly given to Ukraine by Nikita Khrushchev.
This statement reflects Navalny’s long and controversial history with Ukraine. Many Ukrainians believe that they are fighting not only Putin, but also an aggressive, imperial mindset deeply rooted in the minds of Russians. Navalny denies the existence of such thinking. But he struggles to reconcile his views as he tries to form the role of a real alternative to Putin. He feels a deep personal horror at the war in the country where he spent his childhood with his grandparents. He is also trying to take a position that will not alienate him from Russian voters, who he hopes will one day elect him president of Russia.
That is increasingly unlikely because his health is deteriorating in the colony where he is serving a 30-year sentence. His release date is currently set for 2051, when he will turn 75.
The entire article can be read at the link https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/27/navalny-ukraine-putin-russia/
