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b'Well before launching the horrifying campaign against Ukraine a year ago, Vladimir Putin had been undermining Russia as well: normalizing corruption on a massive scale, and suppressing dissent and democracy.\\xa0 One of the darkest moments on that trajectory was the poisoning of the opposition leader Alexey Navalny with the nerve agent novichok.\\xa0 Navalny and a team of investigators had illustrated the corruption of Putin and his circle in startling detail, and Navalny began travelling the country to launch a bid for the Presidency.\\xa0 \\u201cEvery time when I heard Navalny giving an interview, I don\\u2019t think there was one interview where he wasn\\u2019t asked, \\u2018How come you\\u2019re still alive? How come they still haven\\u2019t they killed you?,\\u2019 \\u201d recalls the Russian activist Maria Pevchikh, the head of investigations and media for Navalny\\u2019s Anti-Corruption Foundation. \\u201cAnd Navalny is rolling his eyes saying, \\u2018I don\\u2019t know, I\\u2019m tired of this question, stop asking. I don\\u2019t know why I\\u2019m still alive and why they haven\\u2019t tried to assassinate me.\\u2019 \\u201d\\xa0 Pevchikh was travelling with Navalny when he was poisoned, and helped uncover the involvement of the F.S.B. security services.\\xa0 After surviving the assassination and recuperating abroad, Navalny returned to Russia only to be arrested and then detained in a penal colony. \\u201cI think Putin wants him to suffer a lot and then die in prison,\\u201d Pevchikh tells David Remnick. Still, she maintains hope. \\u201cThe situation is so chaotic, specifically because of the war,\\u201d she says. \\u201cIs the likelihood of Navalny being released when the war ends high? I think it is almost certain.\\u201d Pevchikh also served as an executive producer of the documentary \\u201cNavalny,\\u201d which is nominated for an Academy Award.'