To those who've been asking me why is Putin terrified of Navalny: this is why.
Russian despots are always afraid of being exposed for who they are. Putin has cultivated an image of a Manly Man Returning Russia to Greatness. Navalny has unmasked him as a petty, avaricious grifter. https://twitter.com/biannagolodryga/status/1351003218474639368

Navalny, remember, didn't start out as Putin's "political opponent." He was a blogger who exposed political corruption, embezzlement and grift. His own political views weren't terribly liberal: a mix of white nationalism, libertarianism and populism. But they weren't the point...

Putin is not afraid of political opposition. He can eliminate it as a phenomenon. He can ban any candidate from running with a phone call. He cannot, physically, lose an election. His fear of Navalny is a fear of the mirror, a fear of the truth. A Russian despot's biggest enemy.

It was the disclosure of all the shady financial dealings, the self-enrichment schemes, the ridiculous excesses and luxuries, the raiding of the public coffers, the buying and selling of natural resources, etc. etc., that got Putin scared and furious...

It was the ripping down the veneer of a Manly Man, Bear-Riding, Shirtless Warrior Who Makes the World Tremble and exposing a small, balding, greedy kleptomaniac leech, worthy of ridicule. It was Navalny's rebranding of "United Russia" as "The Party of Crooks and Thieves"...

That shook Putin to his core. Making him look petty, small, dirty and ridiculous (the way he actually is) - that he could not abide. This is why he has never, even once, publicly uttered Navalny's name. He is Putin's own personal Voldemort.

He is afraid that by naming him, he will legitimize everything Navalny has exposed and make it stick, once and forever. He calls him "some blogger" or "the German patient", he commands his mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov to do the same. It's incredible and fascinating.
And revealing.