Alexei Navalny was one of the bravest men of our time. He stood up to one of the most evil men of our time: Vladimir Putin. Navalny has now died, a political prisoner, at 47.

He was widely known as “the leader of the opposition” — the Russian political opposition to Putin. Life expectancy is not terribly long in that job. The previous leader, Boris Nemtsov, was gunned down within sight of the Kremlin in 2015. Navalny and his allies have been particularly good at exposing Putin’s corruption. They have done this through their organization, the Anti-Corruption Foundation.

Navalny had remarkable sangfroid. In 2017, he was gearing up to make a presidential run. An assailant threw some mix of chemicals into his face. Navalny was mainly blinded in one eye. He said he hoped he would be cured but, if not, “Russia will have a president with a stylish, white eye.”

In 2020, agents of the FSB — formerly the KGB — almost killed him with poison. Navalny managed to survive, having been taken to Germany for medical treatment. Sometimes Putin’s critics survive, sometimes they don’t. FSB agents tried to kill Vladimir Kara-Murza with poison twice — once in 2015 and again in 2017. Kara-Murza had worked closely with Nemtsov. Today, he is in prison, held in isolation in Siberia.