© Agence France-PresseAlexey Navalny Russian blogger Alexey Navalny as he speaks in his office in Moscow.
Alexey Navalny leaps out of his chair and draws five black circles on a whiteboard. The circles represent players in Russia's multibillion-dollar oil industry. With boundless energy and lightning speed, he draws lines and connects the dots, telling the story of what he calls classic Russian corruption.
In Russia, this is not done - at least not publicly. Navalny is speaking in a country that has seen its greatest government critics jailed, exiled and killed. But the 34-year-old lawyer, smart, self-confident and apparently fearless, has made a career of going after Russia's untouchables. As Russia's chief whistleblower - a one-man WikiLeaks - he has focused in the past three years on using the law to obtain information from the infamously secretive state-run corporations that fuel the country's economy and line the pockets of its highest officials.
"Everyone says corruption is everywhere, but for me it seems strange to say that and then not try to put the people guilty of that corruption away," Navalny said during an interview at his central Moscow office, adorned with little but stacks of papers and a gleaming silver MacBook.
For now, that is not his goal. Instead, he has focused on exposing the insidious corruption that even Russia's leaders acknowledge is the country's biggest problem.
