Navalny’s friends knew he was willing to become a martyr if that’s what it took to stand up to Putin.
Alexei Navalny’s long struggle against President Putin began with a humorous blog and culminated in repeated demonstrations of his willingness to risk his own life. According to the Russian authorities on Friday, he has now died in prison.
Russia’s leading opposition voice has been silenced.
Other dissident figures went into exile or died in mysterious circumstances over the past decade, leaving Navalny as the last national figure with a dedicated following.
Though he had been arrested many times before, Navalny’s defining moment in the eyes of many Russians came after the attempt to assassinate him with Novichok. He recuperated in the sanctuary of a German hospital but chose to defy Putin and return to Russia in January 2021, knowing full well he would end up in prison.
If Russia is like the US with trump, then there’s the active population who are supporting Putin, because even if he’s a bastard, at least he hurts the right people. Then there’s an apathetic horde, who don’t care or are too beaten down to do anything. Then there’s the group that know what’s up and wants change.
The question is if Navalny’s death meant anything. The people who care are already at a disadvantage because of the authoritarian State, the supporters aren’t going to change, and the apathetic don’t have time to care. IMO he would have been better off, alive, outside of Russia and criticizing Putin.
What you said could be true of any event, but reality is, each of these events influence apathetic people to either become supporters of the regime or anti-establishment.
At least, that’s my theory. If not, there would never have been any progress in human society, if things are as static as you theorized.
I think the point is, that he might have been able to influence more, if he was alive, and maybe even free, outside of Russia
I don’t imply society is in a permanent static state, my question is if Navalny’s demise would effect any meaningful change to the status quo.
I think progress comes from young people, not apathetic people who have had changes of heart.
Apathetic parents lead to angry kids, angry kids look for answers. Some of them will find the right ones.
Apathy is not age related; it is a state of mind. You have very energetic grown ups, and very apathetic youth and visa versa.
Russia is not like the US under Donald John. There are indeed rabid supporters of Putin and Russian imperialism (“vatniks”), but the regime functions regardless of popular support.
You are right about what groups of people exist. You are, however, completely mistaken about their importance if you compare Russia to the US under Trump.
My understanding, which is based in large part on my personal experience and observation of the size of protests (statistics suck when dictatorships are involved), is that the vast majority of Russians dislike Putin, but they believe that there is nothing that can be done at the moment.
Doomerism is very strong in Russia. Our prevailing mentality is to suck it up and keep going. It pains me to say this, but in the current conditions of Russia, the doomers have a point.
The day we all knew was coming, sadly. The day he set foot on that plane back to Moscow from Germany, it was not a question of if but when this would happen.
The sacrifice was in vain, we know Putin is a shithead.
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You are a Westerner.
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You live after the beginning of the Ukrainian War.
In Russia, for the longest time, dislike of the regime was primarily limited to the youth. The average person had a vague understanding that there was a lot of corruption. However, they did not understand just how deep it went. The average person understood that there was some enrichment going on, but they thought it was mostly local and small-scale. People seldom had personal experience with the repression of dissidents, nor did they know much about the opposition movement.
Navalni opened people’s eyes. He revealed the palaces of the deputies, ministers, and Vladimir Vladimirovich himself. He revealed how corruption was horrendous on every level of government. He revealed the absurdly close ties between the oligarchs and government. He made the repression visible too, thought this was a much more minor part of his project.
On the back of all of his investigations, he built a mass movement. Individual, fractured discontent just leads to depressed people who believe themselves to be isolated, the sole sane man in a sea of nutcases. He united people. He organized demonstrations. He made discontent public and visible, thus opening the eyes of even more people.
The modern opposition movement would not exist were it not for Navalni.
That being said, there were two main issues with Navalni’s work. First, he wasted a lot of energy telling people to vote, and came up with the Smart Voting scheme to vote out URers, even though he himself acknowledged the lack of fairness in the elections. This was a colossal waste of time, energy, and resources. It changed nothing. You cannot vote out a dictatorship.
Second, he was a nationalist, especially early on. Later on he became more of a typical liberal, but his years as the sort of guy to yell “Russia is for Russians” have been harmful to the opposition.
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Everybody know that Putin is a monster, except for the Russians. They need a revolution!
Russians know it to, they just can’t do anything about it.
They know. They just don’t care because he’s “their” monster. Nothing will change in the wake of Nelvany’s death.
This is a harsh lesson in allowing the cult of personality into a democratic election. Everyone should have learned from Hitler’s example but memories are apparently short lived. Now we have people like Netanyahu, Putin, and Trump and a world war is inevitable.
That didn’t end well last time though
I mean, they deposed a monarch, so that’s good.
It sadly did end. Now another fucking imperialist is in charge.
Did he really need to sacrifice himself for that?
Is there seriously anyone who was in denial until they learned about Navalny?
Sadly, yes. Russian State Media is the only source of information for a lot of “normal” Russians. Although that sadly also means that his sacrifice most likely won’t have a large impact on the Russian political landscape.
Then it’s worse than I thought.
Kind of strange that a culture with so many pariahs seems to also have a stranglehold on any dissent.
I guess China is the same way, so I shouldn’t be surprised.
Villaviciencio here in Ecuador also sacrificed himself. Yes, people do that…
Yes, but this is Navalny in Russia.
Sergei Magnitsky already did this in 2009, but I suppose we needed a reminder.
I don’t understand why he returned to Russia just to get killed.
It doesn’t seem to have achieved anything. Did he think the rigged Russian courts would save him?
Snowden and Assange doing everything they can to stay out of the claws of their fascist overlords, but Navalny just handed himself over to his…
Those who don’t understand that paid little attention to his life and his fight. I suggest you checking out the Navalny documentary at least.
Got a title or a link for the uninformed?
It’s called Navalny. They made it available for free here though not sure if proper subtitles are included https://navalny-film.io/
Otherwise it’s on streaming platforms and torrents.
Awesome thank you
I don’t understand why he returned to Russia just to get killed.
Because in Russia you have to sacrifice yourself and suffer to be “real” politician, and not “stay in cozy Germany”, “preaching from abroad”. Navalny and other imprisoned politicians believe this too, they’re the product of the same society after all.
That’s called dedicating your life to a cause. He knew he was going to be killed and was willing to give up his life to hopefully bring down Putin at some point hopefully in the future
Unfortunately I don’t think his sacrifice is gonna achieve much. I’d love to be proven wrong though.
It will teach people not to do the same thing in the future.
“Bravery” points on reddit-like forums don’t mean much in the real world.
Further investigation has revealed he died of a rare condition where his balls were just too damn big. There are a lot of people in Russia, but not many at all this brave and resolute. I hope his death awakens more of this rebellious spirit. All evil dictators have a tipping point. Nothing is impossible. Fuck Putin. Fuck the oligarchy. Fuck the propaganda machine. Fuck the military. Fuck them hard.
Putin was one already.
Who’s not happy can go here https://neputin.org/ And maybe even here https://shtab.navalny.com/
oof
Hthhhhh%hhhdqhh%ud
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Please correct me if I’m wrong but Assange held back dirt obtained on Republicans and only passed out information damaging to Democrats. It’s been a long morning.
A self-made martyr?
