The Dissident: Alexey Navalny: Profile of a Political Prisoner

A news-driven biography of Vladimir Putins nemesis Alexey Navalny lawyer, blogger, anti-corruption crusader, protest organizer, political opposition leader, mayoral and presidential candidate, campaign strategist, provocateur, poisoning victim, dissident, and now, prisoner of conscience and anti-war crusader. THE DISSIDENT is the story of how one fearless man, offended by the dishonesty and criminality of the Russian political system, mounted a relentless opposition movement and became President Vladimir Putins most formidable rivalso despised that the Russian leader makes a point of never uttering Navalnys name. Theres an old saying that Russia without corruption isnt Russia. Alexey Navalny refuses to accept this proposition. His stubborn insistence that Russians can defy the stereotype and create an entirely different country made him such a threat to Putin that the Kremlin wanted him exiledor deadand now seems intent on keeping him locked in a prison colony for decades. International correspondent David M. Herszenhorn, weaves together the threads of Navalnys remarkable life and work: The assassination attempt with a military-grade nerve agent by an FSB hit squad in Siberia, his recovery, and the vigilante-style investigation with news outlet Bellingcat to identify and confront his own would-be killers; Navalnys personal biography as part of the generation that straddled the end of the Soviet Union and birth of the Russian Federation, including childhood summers with his Ukrainian grandparents near Chernobyl, and his fellowship at Yale University, which spurred conspiracy theories about his ties to the U.S.; His anti-corruption investigations that exposed billions in graft at Russias biggest state-owned companies and vast bribe-taking by top Russian officials, including his blockbuster revelations about Putins Black Sea Palace; His political activism, including huge street protests, his bid for Moscow mayor in 2013, renegade run for president in 2017, his controversial views on nationalism, gun rights and Crimea, his transformation into a prisoner of conscience bravely denouncing Putins war of aggression in Ukraine, and more. Riveting and complex, THE DISSIDENT introduces readers to modern Russias greatest agitator, a man willing to sacrifice his freedomand even his own lifeto build the decent, democratic country he wants to live in and hopes to pass on to his children.