Maybe some of you have already seen this great thread on twitter, but if not - I strongly recommend that you read the entire thread to the end.
The author quite objectively covers the problem, and also touches on a topic that I have long wanted to talk about, but didn’t know where to start.
I know I will probably get a lot of hate for this post.
Alexei Navalny, poisoned and imprisoned leader of the Russian opposition. If you know who he is then you probably support him and think that he could changed the Russian politics to the better if he had the opportunity.
Western media usually portrays Navalny as a fearless warrior of justice, unfortunately, this is a dangerous misconception. Do you know why the West and Russian liberals love him so much? Because he is against Putin, that’s it. He is Putin’s enemy, he was viciously poisoned and illegally convicted - these are facts I’m not trying to argue with. But he is also not a liberal and not a leftist. He is just a powerless, failed version of Putin. And the rule “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” doesn’t apply in this case.
Navalny is a smart man, he successfully gained authority points from the opposition-minded part of Russian society, using to his advantage the most problematic topic of Russian politics - corruption. He and his team have gained immense popularity and support from many Russians by publishing revealing investigations into corrupt Russian politicians.
For many years of his career, Navalny called Putin a thief and the ruling party a “party of swindlers and thieves." What is wrong with this statement? Everybody knows that every Russian politician is corrupt, because you simply can’t work in a deeply corrupt system and not be corrupt. Of course, Putin and his party steal people’s money, it is completely obvious to everybody. But Putin is much more than that. He is a killer, a terrorist, a war criminal and a dictator. He was all of the aforementioned for years before the recent invasion of Ukraine. But Navalny does not particularly condemn this?
Navalny is just another, more modern incarnation of Russia’s imperialist nature. Not only does he not condemn Russia’s attacks on other sovereign countries, he supports it. Back in 2008 Putin did to Georgia similar thing that he did to Ukraine later in 2014. Putin created puppet "self-proclaimed republics” of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, basically invaded Georgia and started a war. For the same reasons he did it again with Ukraine in 2014, in 2008 Georgia wanted to move along the European path of development, away from Russian imperialism.
Navalny not only greatly approved of that unjust war, he enthusiastically called for harder bombing of “rodents" Yep, he called Georgians rodents. In Russian, words грузин and грызун sound very similar, Navalny probably was proud of his "joke” back then. Years later, when these words surfaced, Navalny apologized for calling the people of Georgia rodents, but added that he still stands by everything else that he said regarding the war, like: “In modern conditions, authority is based only on force” or “Russia must immediately recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Only the recognition of independence gives a way out of the crisis. And it will give a legitimate right to our (Russian) troops to be in these zones.”
He also insultingly called Tajiks “chuchmeks” and said many other “interesting” things.
In 2014, Navalny said that if he became president of Russia, he would not regain control of Crimea to Ukraine. Because the occupied peninsula is “not a sandwich” to be “passed back and forth”. He also echoed Putin’s traditional imperialistic statement that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people.” Although Navalny admitted that such statements sound insulting to many Ukrainians.
On the one hand, Alexei Navalny declares his democratic position, and on the other, he supports the Russian agression in other countries. His “democracy” ends on the issue of Ukraine. But why doesn’t this bother his progressive and educated supporters?
The sad truth is that the absolute majority of Russians, no matter the opposition or not, are bearers of imperialist ideals. At best, they condemn the annexation of Crimea and Donbas because they don’t want their taxes to be spent on it when there are many problems within Russia’s borders. But most of them don’t care about the suffering and death that Russia brings to other countries. They are not offended when their leader belittles and insults other nations, no matter who that leader is - Putin or Navalny.
Even if Putin dies/gets overthrown in the coming days, Russians will create another tsar for themselves. This has been the case throughout the entire history of Russia. It’s not the leader - it’s the people. As long as the Nazi and imperialist worldview prevails in Russian society, Russia will continue to produce new tsars, new dictators, new Putins. This is a vicious circle.
Alexei Navalny was sentenced to a 1.2 million rubles fee and 9 years in high-security colony which means it would be difficult to access it and keep contact with him.
Freedom to Navalny ✊❤
Navalny’s reaction to the sentence:
‘9 years. Well, just like what characters from my favourite show “The Wire” said: “You only do two days. That’s the day you go in and the day you come out” I even had a t-shirt with that motto but prison authorities seized it, considering it as an extremist item’
Kira Yarmysh, a Russian public figure and Navalny’s press secretary, explains how Alexei’s new fake trial went and why it’s important to share information about it.
Today he will be sentenced (the judge is announcing the verdict atm)
Alexei Navalny was sentenced to a 1.2 million rubles fee and 9 years in high-security colony which means it would be difficult to access it and keep contact with him.
Freedom to Navalny ✊❤
Navalny’s reaction to the sentence:
‘9 years. Well, just like what characters from my favourite show “The Wire” said: “You only do two days. That’s the day you go in and the day you come out” I even had a t-shirt with that motto but prison authorities seized it, considering it as an extremist item’
UPD (April 11 2022): David Simon, creator and executive producer of 'The Wire’, on Twitter:
