ABSTRACT
Alexei Navalny represents one of Russia's Zeitgeists that is little known in the West: the National Democrats, combining pro-Western liberal narratives with ethnic nationalism and virulent xenophobia. The Natsdems are not a unified movement but a kaleidoscope of individuals with their own set of diverging ideological convictions, a loose coalition of a new generation of pro-Western nationalists. Unlike many other Natsdem figures with the exception of Milov, Navalny first committed to politics as a "liberal" well before being also labeled a "nationalist." The terminological ambiguities used to describe the ideological niche occupied by Navalny and the Natsdem movement obscure, rather than clarify, the debate. Konstantin Krylov represents a second strand of the Natsdem movement and is its most productive intellectual. Like a growing number of nationalists, Krylov advocates independence for the North Caucasus, or at least a kind of protectorate that would leave the region separated from the rest of the country.
