Russian dissident Alexei Navalny is becoming a real problem for Vladimir Putin, in a way that almost no individual has been during Putin's 20+ year stewardship of the country.
A longtime critic of Putin, Navalny may have been expected to go quiet after he was arrested on January 17th upon his return to Russia. Instead, Navalny's YouTube channel posted a 2-hour exposé that alleges that a $1.3bn palace has been built by oligarchs for Putin, which almost immediately went viral racking up tens of millions of views over the next week.
A rock and a hard place
Navalny has played a genius (and brave) hand. By returning freely, knowing he would likely be arrested, he captured the media's attention and — just as it began to fade — played the ace up his sleeve by posting his exposé on the internet, which, coupled with his arrest, triggered mass rallies of thousands of protesters across Russia.
In an unusual move Putin has addressed the video directly, commenting that the palace "doesn't belong to me" and that he found the video "boring", while condemning the "illegal and dangerous" protests. More permanent options of dealing with Navalny seem unlikely to garner favour, now that his profile has become so elevated.
As Gideon Rachman from the FT points out, previous protests in Russia, such as those in 2012, didn't really have a leader. Now they do — and even behind bars Alexei's shouts of protest seem louder than ever before.
