The Biden administration slapped economic sanctions last week on a number of Russian officials in response to the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in August and his imprisonment upon returning to Moscow in January after successful treatment in Germany. Navalny’s supporters met the Kremlin’s action with waves of protest, for which 4,000 were detained or arrested. The protests have now quieted down, and when that happens in Russia, the temptation, based on recent history, is to think that this is another flash-in-the-pan movement unlikely to survive harsh repression. But as a longtime Russia watcher, I think there is modest reason to question that conclusion in the case of Navalny and his supporters.
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