In this Olympic season, Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation has posted a funny assault on the Putin crowd on its Web site, sochi.fbk.info. Under the rubric “Champions of the corruption race,” it awards sarcastic medals to Putin insiders in such categories as “Classic Embezzlement,” “Verbal Freestyle,” “Pairs’ Contracting” and “Skating the Figures.” One Putin business chum is scored for receiving contracts for 30 Olympic projects; another is tagged for overseeing a boondoggle that spent $7 billion on a road-and-rail link that covered 30 miles.

Putin himself is lambasted on Navalny’s site for having claimed, less than a year ago, that the Olympics would cost just $6.5 billion, which was less than earlier estimates. “The main issue is to be sure nobody steals anything,” Putin said at the time. That must bring a smile today to many Russian lips. Total spending is estimated at $51 billion, making Sochi more than seven times as costly as the previous Winter Games in Vancouver.

The power of activists such as Navalny is that they appear to be fearless. They continue advancing despite intimidation, arrest and even imprisonment. We’ve seen a similar spirit on the streets of Kiev in Ukraine this winter. No wonder the Russians are worried. Once such a democratic movement gains momentum, it isn’t deterred by threats; indeed, it seems almost to thrive on them.