Russian gambit

In chess the gambit, which derives from the Italian word gambetto (“Trip”), is a play consisting of sacrificing a piece at the beginning of the game in hopes of obtaining a future advantage. It is a tactic that should not be alien to Alexéi Navalni, whose talents as a strategist few deny. With no alternatives to Putin, he has emerged as the only preacher in the desert covering Russia after two decades of the former’s supreme power. Despite his inferiority of means …