A year has passed since Alexei Navalny died in a Russian penal colony — a death his supporters believe was ordered by the Kremlin. Twelve months later, President Vladimir Putin and his inner circle, the ones Navalny was fighting, are still in power, and the mass opposition protests that were once Navalny's greatest strength have evaporated.

Meanwhile, Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (the ACF, also known by its Russian acronym, FBK) — which in his lifetime outraged millions with its revelations of corruption among Russia's highest officials, including Putin — has "irrevocably lost" its authority, said independent Russian political scientist Alexander Kynev.

Speaking with DW, Kynev said the ACF was once a figurehead of the opposition, an organization that influenced political life in Russia. "The ACF was always worth reporting on; it was an event in itself."

But that, he said, is no longer the case, for two main reasons. The first was Navalny's arrest. "As soon as the most important opposition politician had been isolated, the field of political action was reduced," he said. Public interest in "second or third-level" figures, as Kynev called Navalny's inner circle, was no comparison to the interest in Navalny himself.

Kynev believes the general public began to lose interest after Navalny's arrest, when the focus shifted to the struggle for his release. "It was no........

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