"Alexei Navalny Taught Russia's Opposition How to Mobilize": Historian on Putin's "Dictatorship"

Thousands gathered Friday in Moscow for the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony on February 16. The funeral was live-streamed on Navalny’s YouTube channel to millions of his supporters, who suspect President Vladimir Putin is behind the dissident’s death. “We live in an open dictatorship where any forms of public disobedience are forbidden,” says Russian historian and political theorist Ilya Budraitskis, who says Navalny’s death has galvanized public opposition for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine. With the war enabling the Kremlin to suppress political freedom, Budraitskis says Russian leaders are “ready to continue” their invasion and are openly advocating for the dismantling of Ukraine. “If Ukraine will be not supported from the West, Russia will continue its offensive and realize its final goal: the elimination of Ukraine as a state.”