Monday briefing
What the death of Aleksei Navalny means
Alexei Navalny, Russia's most prominent opposition leader, died in a penal colony on Friday. He was 47.
Navalny's body has not been released to his family and the cause of death remains unclear.
Navalny was the Kremlin's fiercest critic. He publicly denounced the corruption he saw at the core of President Vladimir Putin's political party, with enormous personal consequences: he barely survived a poisoning attempt and has been imprisoned since 2021.
His death sparked mourning in Russia – where at least 366 people have been detained for expressing their grief – and left the opposition questioning its future.
Yesterday I spoke with Anton Troianovsky, head of The Times' Moscow bureau, about the response to Navalny's death and the future of the Russian opposition.
What reaction do you see in Russia? How do people grieve?
All over the country people lay flowers at memorials to Soviet repression. Many cities in Russia have memorials, usually erected in the 1990s, honoring the victims of the Gulag and other repressions during the Soviet Union. And it seems that people more or less automatically flock to those places to honor Navalny's memory.
Of course, we're talking about the minority of people who are brave enough to do that. Human rights organizations have already reported hundreds of arrests of people who simply came to lay flowers. Even to do that is a very dangerous statement in today's Russia. And at the same time, state television, the main news medium in Russia, reports virtually nothing about what happened.
What does this mean for the opposition in Russia?
It is a devastating moment for the opposition in Russia. I don't think you can put it any other way. Navalny was the hope for people opposed to Vladimir Putin, although Navalny was in some ways a controversial figure. There were people who, especially earlier in his political career, thought he was a little too nationalistic. He had a rather direct, brusque style that turned some people off.
But no one disputed that he was the main alternative to Vladimir Putin in Russian politics. He was really the only figure of all the various political figures over the past 24 years who tried to challenge Putin. He was the only one who could appeal not only to urban liberals in Moscow, but also to a much broader cross-section of Russians. He was incredibly adept at using YouTube and social media to break the propaganda bubble of state television. And he managed to build a national political network that could repeatedly organize mass protests.
What can the opposition do in the future?
Shortly before his death, Navalny supported an idea put forward by another exiled opposition figure: What if everyone who opposes Putin goes to a local polling station at exactly the same time on March 17, the last day of the elections? the election? And opposition figures say the time in your city should be noon local time.
So it seems that the opposition in exile is going to put a lot of pressure on social media, on YouTube. And opposition figures think that even in today's repressive environment, this may be a relatively safe way to protest, because no one is saying you can't go to the polls.
Russia captured Avdiivka
Ukrainian troops withdrew from Avdiivka, a devastated city on the eastern frontline, giving Russia its biggest battlefield victory since it captured Bakhmut in May. The withdrawal comes at a time when the Ukrainian army is outgunned and out of control.
Ukrainian soldiers in Avdiivka withstood near-constant bombardment and fought intense battles to escape Russian attempts to encircle them. More than 900 of the city's 30,000 residents remained there, most surviving underground with food and supplies brought in by aid workers. Their fate is unknown.
“Natural asset companies” would attempt to put a market price on improving ecosystems by using the proceeds from public offerings to conserve land. Ideally, investments in the companies would increase as environmental quality improves, delivering returns years later.
Such a company does not yet exist, but the idea is gaining traction among some environmentalists and investors.
SPORTS NEWS
The most important players of the Premier League: Who contributes the most anyway 20 clubs?
Footballer convicted for fatal collision: Ciaran Dickson was sentenced to six years in prison for murdering a teenager in Glasgow.
The remarkable journey of one tennis player: Fnu Nidunjianzan journey from Tibet to Princeton.
ARTS AND IDEAS
When eating with your hands is encouraged
In the West, only certain foods and scenarios are exempt from cutlery. But in parts of Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia, eating with your hands is traditional and for some still routine.
Now some restaurants in Western countries that serve food from those cultures are asking their customers to drop their forks, wash their hands and dig in.
That's it for today's briefing. Thank you for spending part of your morning with us, and see you tomorrow. – Than
PS Today is Presidents' Day, a national holiday in the US. The financial markets are closed.
You can reach Dan and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.