He is not an "anti-war candidate". To think it is possible without FSB approval is naivety. His purpose was to collect lists of people who signed for him (that is, new opposition that hasn't emigrated and formed naturally in 2022-2024 - needless to say, it consists of completely different demographics and people's backgrounds from the "old" opposition). Unfortunately these people are too naive to recognize the danger.

this is FUD. Inventing another candidate while already sitting on already existing lists of tons of Navalny supporters? supporters to whom nothing happened through all that time? doesn't pass the smell check

Navalnyists are soft-banned in Russia. They can't make any meaningful public statements without hitting one of the censure laws (e.g. it's illegal to say anything about the war that differs from the official Kremlin line). The FSB just slaps the "foreign agent" designation onto the more loud ones and makes their lives difficult enough for them to migrate away. It's a slow cleanse but it's pretty effective.

You are talking about public discourse

I replied to comment claiming a candidate was invented by our gov to collect PII of people who signed for him. Until people who donated/signed for Navalny are in trouble I don't see why that can be true

There are tons of Navalny non-supporters who are latently opposed. Personally I'd say that they are actually more dangerous to the regime due to the stratum they represent. You just don't hear it on the internet because they are older and have shit to lose. Alexey was a youth's idol, not adults'. Many people never considered him a good politician, if mediocre. Maybe that other person wasn't "invented", but they definitely could use him as a trap. There's no way anything could change here through "elections".

I don't get, most who could get trapped by signing/donating to the new guy could already be via donating/signing for Navalny. Years passed and nothing

I've known him personally for quite a time and that's a ridiculous statement. He never was and isn't a revolutionary, but he always was pretty sincere in his beliefs and his attempts to fight in rapidly closing legal space.

Sad times began in 2012. Since then opposition has no a single chance to win elections.

Navalny was in support of Ukrainian invasion of Crimea and knew it would require a further land invasion to keep. He was just as psycho and homicidal (suicidal) as Prigozhin but refused to be under Putin’s thumb. Navalny wanted to be the #1 asshole in charge otherwise return to Russia and die in prison.

this is incorrect

Okay, I am wrong then. Glad you set the record straight.

No he wasn’t

Sad times began in 2002, when the last independent TV channel (TV-6), to where the team of previously shut down channel NTV, flocked, was also taken over and shut down. That was the end of free press.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV-6_(Russia)

Maybe beginning of the end. The Internet was free until 2010 or so.

I feel it worths noting that the meaning of the word 'legal' is different for ears of western than some eastern nations. It may be inaccurate to describe for western minds what actualy is happening there as legality and law is an instrument of the ruling party for the benefit of the ruling party not some independent supervising power for the goodwill of all. I feel using the English word 'legal' is completely inaccurate expressing Russian public matters, some other was better to adapt/coin for the situation, unsure what though.

Did you see the legal attacks on Trump? The USA is headed the same direction unfortunately.

Can you clarify what you mean?

I believe you are confused and when you talk about where US is headed you wanted to cite the absolute presidential immunity that Trump pursuing for himself (adapting from his good friend, Putin) so he could continue doing and escaping the deserved consequences of huge tax evasions (plural!), fueling riot, stealing and exposing state and allied secrets, and in general other yet unspecified criminal activity as well as escalations and conflicts to destroy the order and peace in the whole population in order to pretend being a strong figure (in the attempt of cloacking weak personality), including asking Putin to attack the allies of US (being borderline to treason perhaps?).

What you call legal attack is actually called legal proceedings against a criminal.

Putin usually had faked opposition, and even some illusion of election monitoring. This time around it seems there will be no illusion of having elections at all since there will be no international monitoring and seemingly not even a pretend opposition.

But I guess why would he pretend to have democracy? The Russians certainly don't buy it, and the countries that might care have already cut all ties. I wonder why he bothers to have the election charade?

For his underlings, so that they think that the regime is based on his personal legitimacy and control, and also as a loyalty test.

If he wouldn't be able to regularly display that he has control over the country, it'll be easier for some opportunistic group to organize a coup..