Do your searches in Russian. :) Western media covered only tiny part of Navalny adventures that was suitable for the Western narratives.

Navalny was a murky businessman of kind, participated in money laundering with government owned businesses, like in that Kirovles case. It was regular practice at the time, when product of some state owned company (woddland plots and sawmill in that case) bought for the very low price and then reselled with market price. From the external point of view, there was nothing criminal - buy low, sell high, unless you know how that really work here. This state company sell wood only to Navalny company, because state bureaucrat who was in charge of that state company received huge part of Navalny company profits. Plain and simple corruption and state money laundering. When such schemes began to be criminalized, Navalny jump off and moved to some other less risky businesses. Nobody come after him, just because much larger fish was hunted at the time. But, probably, this ability to run away at the correct time attracted attention of some liberal politicians.

There was few other business adventures, also murky, when Navalny company again did absolutely nothing just being a money proxy.

Eventually, Navalny ended with owning some tiny business of making some wicker-work like chairs or something IIRC. Of course he didn't participate in any work, just was co-owner getting some small profit. And at that stage he decided to move into politics with agenda of fighting against corruption.

Pretty strange for the man who personally make all his weath on corruption.

Initially Navalny played liberal politician, but at the time it was already pretty obvious that liberal ideology is heavily anticipated by Russia population after the years of liberal reforms. You could easily find numerous Navalny meetings with all top liberal politicians of Russia. He often participated in round tables and whatever liberal meetings.

As I understand, Navalny turn to nationalism (fake turn, of course) happened after a group of nationalists disrupted one of liberal meetings where Navalny presented. He got that he will not acheve anything playing liberal, and even single nationalist have much more public support than all liberals together.

He began to participate in Russian marches and other nationalist events. and I suppose that was the moment when he was taken into hand by Western agencies.

West often used nationalism for intervention, but in case of real Russian nationalism that didn't work, really. Either Russian nationalist leaders deny any contacts with Western agencies agents, either such contacts ended with punched faces of western negotiators. One MI6 agent even ended in ICU, with accident filmed and shared over social media at the time, with few nationalist ended in jail for severe harm to health of victim.

But Navalny, being filthy liberal was completely another story. And what's most important, unlike any other nationalist leaders he had murky corrupt past that gives his curators good lever over him.

So, Navalny got financing and press and started his political campaign on the terms of nationalism, antiimmigration and anticorruption - highly popular things among people. But there was one thing people remembered well - he was the one who filed the case against nationalists who once disrupted his liberal meeting and that ended in jail time for one of nationalists for the "spreading of ethnic hatred". Such things are not welcomed in Russia.

Under the guise of that attractive slogans Navalny and his team pushed purely liberal narratives. Navalny once had some peak of popularity, but as more liberal crap like LGBTXYZ+ support began to appear in his agenda, his popularity significantly dropped. But Navalny and team had that finance flow from their Western partners and they started different election companies aiming at some not very high positions like majors of small towns and regional councils.

Nobody really would have been bothered with that attempts, if not the ties of Navalny organisation with Western agencies. Dropped popularity of Navalny do not allow him to achieve anything, but that "Western hand" always make Russian authorities angry. Many different small candidates without chances for win participate in elections, from radical communists to open nationalists and nobody gives a fuck.

As soon as Navalny sensed attention of Russian three-letter services he immidiately began to play a victim. Familiar behaviour, isn't it? This reduced his popularity even more. People still was interested in some dirty underwear Navalny with help of his Beliingcat(MI6) friends dug out on some Russian bureaucrats and oligarchs, but his game was already finished.

The rest of story was more or less represented in Western media from the necessary for the Western narrative angle.

Interesting that in the end, Navalny western masters just throw him under the bus, and then with their stupid sanctions helped Putin to do nearly everything that was in the most popular Navalny points. Seized Russia oligarchs foreing property, rised Russian nationalism to state ideology, clearly show horrors of uncontrolled migration and along with that made any western influence over Russia's wanna-be-politicians highly improbable.

Does Putin heard about Navalny at all? Of course he did. At the level somewhere between that black basketball junky caught with the stuff on the border and some governor from middle of nowhere who tried to swallow too much.