Is there any greater hero anywhere in the world right now than Aleksei Navalny in Russia?

He obviously has courage and integrity, but not nearly enough support inside Russia – and Putin is the most ruthless dictator since Saddam.

Anyone fighting depression to wake for another day.

trump was playing little Putin in the US. And Putin enjoyed all four years of trump. Luckily there are millions of American “Navalnys” who fired trump. Putin’s no longer smiling.

This Aleksei Navalny?

@JLoon: “and Putin is the most ruthless dictator since Saddam.”

This Saddam?

He’s very brave for even returning to Russia.

@jca2 I thought that too.

I’m guessing that if he didn’t return, they could always throw his wife and family in jail, @janbb, which would be a touch thing for him to have to deal with. Sad either way.

@hello321 – Yes. That one.

My thoughts go out to Navalny who is risking his freedom and his life to expose Putin’s corruption. He is a very brave man to face down someone with so much power. He is a hero to me because he’s standing up for principles I believe in.

He is not the only hero. The team who support him get less publicity but are also taking great risks and every one of the thousands of demonstrators risk being beaten up by Putin’s police.

I’m conflicted when it comes to Navalny. Back when Putin dropped the hammer on him, I regarded him as heroic. But then I began reading about his politics, and understood that he was in fact ideologically allied with Putin, only opposed to the blatant and ruthless corruption enabling Putin’s hold on power. This set me to wondering as to why he would return to Russia to martyr himself to the cause. I mean a right wing zealot employing the tactics of Gandhi and Mandela is a new one for me. Why do the rest of you think he chose to return? I can’t figure it out.

@stanleybmanly Someone above said it could be from worrying about what they would do to his family. I don’t have any idea if they were in Russia or with him.

Hero? Are you sure that’s an applicable term in this sense? Why not just ‘humanitarian??’

Altruism is heroic. Putting a cause ahead of your own must be regarded as heroic. Any word that softens the truth (stupidity), valor, courage, all the stuff that generates medals, prosthetics and cemetery plots—heroics.

Literally he IS place his life on the line for the safety of his wife and children.

In jail for years where he may be tortured or even injected with something to silence him as he knows will happen unless more of the Public demand his release.( and intact..no violence on him).
If something happens to him watch the Public outrage become a movement to remove Putin for good. Isn’t that what happened to Sadam in the end.

My best guess is he returned calculating he is a walking dead man. His enemies will get him eventually so why not do as much damage to them while he’s alive.