
© InstagramAlexey Navalny
The EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has proposed naming a new sanctions regime directed against Russia after Alexey Navalny.
Such a move would surely destroy the anti-corruption campaigner's oft-stated political aspirations.In fact, it's hard to imagine the opposition figure would approve of the idea, as it would allow his critics in Russia to
paint him as a tool of the West. While English-speaking and communicative with foreign journalists,
Navalny, a Russian nationalist at heart, has always rejected any notions that he's helping the US and EU further their objectives in the country - for instance, lending his support to Moscow's 2014 reabsorption of Crimea.
The Levada Centre, a liberal opposition-leaning group that has previously received Western funding, runs regular presidential polls in Russia. For the past six years, Navalny's mark has hovered between one and two per cent. However, it's worth noting that
a criminal conviction for fraud, which he says was politically motivated, means the Moscow protest leader
can't actually run for office under the current rules. Attaching his name to a scheme designed to harm Russia would surely
reduce, rather than bolster, his popularity at home, and badly damage his political ambitions.
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