Navalny: Putin’s Nemesis, Russia’s Future? w/ Ben Noble, Jan Matti Dollbaum & Morvan Lallouet

Join authors Ben Noble, Jan Matti Dolbaum, and Morvan Lallouet as they talk about their new book Navalny: Putin’s Nemesis, Russia’s Future?, Navalny’s political evolution, the Kremlin’s responses to him, and the future of his anti-corruption movement.

About the book

Who is Alexei Navalny? Poisoned in August 2020 and transported to Germany for treatment, the politician returned to Russia in January 2021 in the full glare of the world media. His immediate detention at passport control set the stage for an explosive showdown with Vladimir Putin.

But Navalny means very different things to different people. To some, he is a democratic hero. To others, he is betraying the Motherland. To others still, he is a dangerous nationalist. This book explores the many dimensions of Navalny’s political life, from his pioneering anti-corruption investigations to his ideas and leadership of a political movement. It also looks at how his activities and the Kremlin’s strategies have shaped one another.

Navalny makes sense of this divisive character, revealing the contradictions of a man who is the second most important political figure in Russia—even when behind bars. In order to understand modern Russia, you need to understand Alexei Navalny.

About the speakers

Dr Ben Noble is Lecturer in Russian Politics at University College London, a Senior Researcher at the Higher School of Economics, Moscow, and an Associate Fellow at Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs). Ben’s research focusses on authoritarianism, legislative politics, comparative politics, and Russian domestic politics. He regularly contributes to media discussions about contemporary Russian domestic politics, with bylines in general-readership publications, including Newsweek, The Telegraph, The Washington Post ‘Monkey Cage’, Vedomosti, and The Moscow Times.

Dr Jan Matti Dollbaum is a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy (SOCIUM) at the University of Bremen, specialising in activism and civil society in Russia. He is also an Associated Junior Fellow at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Study, HWK) and an affiliated researcher at the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen.

Morvan Lallouet is a PhD candidate at the University of Kent, researching Navalny and the Russian opposition. He also holds an MA (research) from Sciences Po in Paris and a taught MA in International Relations from the University of Kent.

Event moderator

Dr Jade McGlynn is a Research Fellow specialising in Russian political culture and foreign relations. Prior to joining HJS, Jade worked as a Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Oxford. Jade holds a DPhil in Russian from the University of Oxford, where she also gained her BA in Russian and Spanish. She also has a Masters by Research in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Birmingham. Jade has published in various media outlets, leading academic journals, think tank reports, and collected volumes, and she is currently finalising a manuscript on the politics of memory in Putin’s Russia. She lived and worked in Russia for five years.