politicnewsbusterinsiderpostreview: Russian opposition leader calls for worldwide protests

March 2, 2022

Good afternoon. Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned leader of the anti-Putin opposition within Russia, today urged his fellow citizens to take to the streets to actively resist what he called "the aggressive war against Ukraine unleashed by our obviously insane czar."

"Each arrested person must be replaced by two newcomers," a spokesperson posted to Twitter on his behalf. "If in order to stop the war we have to fill prisons and paddy wagons with ourselves, we will fill prisons and paddy wagons with ourselves."

Navalny himself has been in prison since 2021, for what he has described as trumped-up charges of embezzlement—and that's after he survived an alleged assassination attempt. Despite the extraordinary lengths authorities have gone to silence him, he's often regarded to be one of the most significant Kremlin critics of the last decade, with an ability to rally young Russians against Putin, even under the threat of imprisonment and police crackdowns. Although his reach and influence is limited, his call today was another reminder that Putin will have to manage a backlash, not only from the world, but also from within his own country.

We've continued to track the latest news out of Ukraine throughout the day. Check out Isabela Dias's interview with a woman who fled the country and Kiera Butler's latest about the role anti-vaccine groups have played in spreading pro-Putin propaganda.

– Noah Y. Kim