“The Underwear Poisoner”: What’s going on in Russia?
Jay Ramesh
Imagine that you’re in second grade. Everyday, your teacher walks your class to the library after lunch, and she picks a new line-leader every week based on whoever answers the most questions in class. It’s the second week of class, and you’re selected as the line-leader. You have fun walking your class to the library, and all your best friends walk right behind you. Now imagine that it’s the third week of class, and you see that a kid you don’t like is answering a lot of questions in class, threatening your position as line leader. So, taking the most logical approach possible, you put raisins in his cookie at lunch so that he throws up and has to go home, cementing your position as line-leader. According to Russian politician and activist Alexei Navalny, that’s what it feels like to be Vladimir Putin, President of Russia.
Putin has been the undisputed leader of Russian politics for 21 years, even amending the constitution to allow him to theoretically remain president for another 15 years. Though he has historically enjoyed mass popular support, he has faced heavy criticism from political opposition leaders, most notably 44-year old Alexei Navalny, a political leader and anti-corruption activist. Navalny had run for Mayor of Moscow back in 2013, but ultimately lost to a Putin-appointed incumbent mayor.
The next year, the Russian government accused Navalny of embezzlement, which was widely seen as a purely political move to prevent him from running in subsequent elections. Navalny tried to run for president in 2018 but was barred due to his previous embezzlement charges.
Navalny has released many documents and a documentary exposing corruption in Putin’s Russia, marking himself as an enemy of the current regime. On August 20, 2020, he fell into a coma while on a flight to Moscow and rushed to a Berlin hospital. Subsequent international tests revealed that he had been exposed to a deadly soviet-era nerve agent.
Navalny spent several months recovering from the coma and called Putin “The Underwear Poisoner”, accusing Putin of attempting to poison and assassinate him. He later released evidence that Russian agents had placed the nerve agent in the lining of his underwear.
When he returned to Moscow on January 17, Navalny was immediately detained and will be held in custody until February 15. His return to Russia has sparked waves of protests across the nation, most of which have been brutally suppressed by police in full riot gear. At least 5,000 people across the nation have been arrested after police used batons, tasers, and tear gas to subdue peaceful crowds of protestors.
Navalny released a Youtube documentary after his arrest where he attempts to expose Putin’s wealth and corruption within Russia. As of the time of this writing, the video has over 100,000,000 views. For the past 21 years, the future of Russia has always been tied to the future of Putin, but the mass demonstrations across the country may signal that the Underwear Poisoner’s grip over Russia is nearing its end.