The Russian activist Aleksei Navalny has spent years agitating against corruption, and against President Vladimir Putin.

Last summer he was poisoned with a rare nerve agent linked to the Russian state. Last week, after recovering in Germany, he returned to Moscow. He was arrested at the airport, but he managed to put out a call for protest, which was answered in the streets of more than a hundred Russian cities.

Today, we look at the improbable story of Aleksei Navalny.

Guest: Anton Troianovski, who has been a Moscow correspondent for The New York Times since 2019.

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Background reading:

Pro-Navalny protests moved across time zones and more than 3,000 people were arrested in at least 109 cities, signaling widespread fatigue with the corruption-plagued political order presided over by President Vladimir Putin.
The protests presented the Russian government with its biggest wave of dissent in years.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

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