Alexei Aleksandrovich Gorinov was born in Moscow on 26 July 1961. He trained first as a geodesist at the Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography, then qualified as a lawyer at the Kutafin Moscow State Law University. For decades before his arrest, he worked as a public defender and human-rights lawyer, and was active in Solidarnost, a liberal-democratic opposition movement.
In 2017 he was elected to the Council of Deputies of Moscow’s Krasnoselsky District — a small, local seat in central Moscow. It is one of the few elected positions in Russia where an opposition figure can still openly hold office. He used it that way. He defended detained protesters, demanded they be given food and water in police stations, and insisted on their legal rights.
He is married, has a son, and before his arrest had already lived through major lung surgery — a fact that would later turn his prison sentence into something closer to a slow execution.