Vladimir Putin is a “monkey with a grenade”: Navalny’s aide says it’s time to be tough with Russian leaders

Just like his boss, Leonid Volkov knew what he was doing. Alexei Navalny’s return to Russia marked the beginning of his arrest, courts, prisons, and protracted struggles. For his right arm, it meant a period of voluntary asylum in Europe, out of the reach of the Kremlin’s long arm.

As the Kremlin critics were imprisoned as expected, it was up to Volkov to announce Team Nawarney’s latest game plan from his new Lithuanian home. The group was calling for a suspension of the rally until spring, he announced. The battle to free Russia’s No. 1 prisoner will now switch to a “foreign policy tool.”

Navalny’s aide, speaking with a private source, said the unexpected change in strategy was an inevitable result of the “apparently cruel crackdown” from the Kremlin. But he claims it was neither “surrender” nor “totally unplanned.” Mr Navalny’s team was run according to the “manual” he had agreed with him before leaving for Moscow — and they had already won “many moral victories.”