Alexei Navalny has been jailed. But he'll still be spooking Vladimir Putin | Rafael Behr

The opposition leader is mobilising young Russians not in thrall to superpower nostalgia, and making the Kremlin look small

The sum of 700 (618) is not large in the context of Russian corruption, but it is a lot to spend on a toilet brush. Then again, sprawling presidential estates have a lot of toilets, which must be cleaned to a standard delivered only by Italian designer brushes.

Details like that are what make Alexei Navalny's recent film about Vladimir Putin's personal fortune so potent. The anti-corruption campaigner's documentary has been viewed more than 100m times. Thanks to aerial drone footage and digital reconstructions based on leaked architectural plans, ordinary Russians have had a guided tour of what Navalny describes, without exaggeration, as a modern-day Versailles. They see what has become of money that might otherwise have been spent easing the burden of economic stagnation and the pandemic.