EUI Professor of History Alexander Etkind and Rutgers University Sociologist Sergei Erofeev focus on Russian democratic leader Alexei Navalny, urging readers to recognise his efforts in the fight against corruption in Russia, and entreating Amnesty International to reinstate the man’s status as a ‘prisoner of conscience’.

Russian intervention is possible, but at this point very unlikely. Much depends on the next steps of the protesters, the Belarusian regime, and major Western states.