It is exactly one year since Alexei Navalny, Russia’s best-known opposition leader and anti-corruption activist, was murdered in an Arctic penal colony by Vladimir Putin’s regime. Countless other political opponents, critics and dissidents have been killed, jailed or exiled since Putin first became president 25 years ago.

All vestiges of an open society, democratic accountability, independent media and free speech in Russia have been eviscerated in that time. Accused of war crimes in Ukraine, which he invaded three years ago this month, Putin poses an undeniable threat to Europe and Britain – as well as to his own people. Yet this is the man with whom Donald Trump now wants to be friends.

Navalny’s fate was terrible, and instructive. No radical, he tried to reform Russia from within. His Anti-Corruption Foundation published factual investigations into official wrongdoing. He ran for mayor of Moscow in 2013. But increased prominence brought increased persecution, and he was barred from the 2018 presidential election. More than anything, perhaps, he was a patriot, principled, charismatic, popular and

© The Guardian