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Following an assassination attempt on his life in 2020, former Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny recuperated in Germany and made a decision that stunned many — he would return to Russia, despite the near-certainty of detainment and the likelihood of death under the regime of Vladimir Putin.

Navalny died in a remote penal colony north of the Arctic Circle in February. But he had been working on drafts for a memoir prior to his death.