Alexei Navalny

Born 4 June 1976 at Butyn, in the Moscow region Graduated in law at Moscow's Friendship of the Peoples University in 1998 Became a Yale World Fellow in 2010 Lives in Moscow with his wife and two children His rise as a force in Russian politics began in 2008 when he started blogging about alleged malpractice and corruption at some of Russia's big state-controlled corporations. One of his tactics was to become a minority shareholder in major oil companies, banks and ministries, and to ask awkward questions about holes in state finances. His use of social media to deliver his message symbolises his political style, reaching out to predominantly young followers in sharp, punchy language, mocking the establishment loyal to President Putin. Mr Navalny was arrested and imprisoned for 15 days following the first protest on 5 December, but emerged to speak at the biggest of the post-election rallies in Moscow on 24 December, attended by as many as 120,000 people. Although Mr Navalny never had the public profile of former jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, parallels between the two figures have been drawn. Mr Khodorkovsky spent a decade in Russian jails, and when in 2010 a court convicted him for a second time, the lengthy prison sentence was announced on 30 December, when most Russians were focused on the new year holiday. Unlike Mr Khodorkovsky, now based in Switzerland, Mr Navalny has vowed to fight on in Russia. Mr Navalny has had critics in the anti-Putin camp, not least for what some see as his flirtation with Russian nationalism. He has spoken at ultra-nationalist events, causing concern among liberals. Russian nationalists, too, were wary of his links with the US after he spent a semester at Yale in 2010.