I don't think he is a nationalist. Navalny's a political chameleon. He'll be whatever he thinks he needs to be in order to advance his own prospects. The problem that his Western backers are having is that, like Garry Kasparov before him, he never managed to build up enough traction, which is why it was never true to call him the "leader" of Russia's opposition.
The second largest political party in Russia after Putin's United Russia are the Communists, and that has been true since the fall of Communism. They have the second largest number of legislative seats, nationally as well as regionally, and there are even Communist mayors of several major Russian cities. For a long time, the perennial Communist presidential candidate was Gennady Zyuganov, who ran in four successive presidential elections and came in second each time, as did his successor in 2018. If there is a "leader" of Russia's anti-Putin opposition, it's him.
The third largest political party in Russia is the "Liberal Democratic" party, who are neither liberal nor particularly democratic, and who believe Putin is not hard line enough on nationalist issues.
The problem that the globalists have always had in Russia is that the two most viable political alternatives to Putin are nationalistic Communists on the one hand and militant right-wing ultra-nationalists on the other. All of their efforts to support a pro-globalist alternative to Putin have been wasted, because the popular support for that option is just not there.
Putin's organization does routinely rig elections in Russia, but only to maintain their supermajority in the duma so that they can keep changing the constitution on a whim. Even in a fair election, Putin would still win, and globalist candidates would still poll in the single digits.
I don't think he is a nationalist. Navalny's a political chameleon. He'll be whatever he thinks he needs to be in order to advance his own prospects. The problem that his Western backers are having is that, like Garry Kasparov before him, he never managed to build up enough traction, which is why it was never true to call him the "leader" of Russia's opposition.
The second largest political party in Russia after Putin's United Russia are the Communists, and that has been true since the fall of Communism. They have the second largest number of legislative seats, nationally as well as regionally, and there are even Communist mayors of several major Russian cities. For a long time, the perennial Communist presidential candidate was Gennady Zyuganov, who ran in four successive presidential elections and came in second each time, as did his successor in 2018. If there is a "leader" of Russia's anti-Putin opposition, it's him.
The third largest political party in Russia is the "Liberal Democratic" party, who are neither liberal nor particularly democratic, and who believe Putin is not hard line enough on nationalist issues.
The problem that the globalists have always had in Russia is that the two most viable political alternatives to Putin are nationalistic Communists on the one hand and militant right-wing ultra-nationalists on the other. All of their efforts to support a pro-globalist alternative to Putin have been wasted, because the popular support for that option is just not there.
Putin's organization does routinely rig elections in Russia, but only to maintain their supermajority in the duma so that they can keep changing the constitution on a whim. Even in a fair election, Putin would still win, and globalist candidates would still poll in the single digits.