Navalny

In a story John le Carré would have dismissed as too fantastical, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny – personally courageous, charismatic and with skills tailor-made for the social-media age – was poisoned in a Russian state-sponsored plot that he then had the temerity to unravel with the help of the perpetrators.

We learn that this bizarre chapter is just one of many dazzling twists in Navalny’s journey to date. While there are glaring gaps in his chequered history – why did he share the stage with Russian nationalists a decade ago? – there is no mistaking his strength of character in proving that fear of physical imprisonment need not mean personal constraint, and that there remain out there some very brave Russians.