Alexi Navalny vs Vladimir Putin
"Things are developing too quickly and too badly.""An extreme situation demands extreme decisions.""A really tough final battle between normal people and absolute evil lies ahead."Supporters of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny
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| In this photo taken on Feb. 12 and provided by the Babuskinsky District Court, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny stands in a cage during a hearing on charges of defamation in Moscow, Russia. (Babuskinsky District Court Press Service/AP) |
"Yesterday he was really unwell ... Given the test results and the overall state of his health, it was decided to transfer him here. In the evening, he became significantly worse.""[He is continuing his hunger strike and] in general his look indicates he is really unwell.""They were searching him ahead of our meeting longer than our meeting had lasted. He was outraged by this.""Therefore, we couldn't discuss anything, apart from what has happened to him."lawyer Alexei Liptser
Time and again it has proved to be extremely injurious to one's health and longevity to choose to stand on moral principles in opposing Russia's most experienced politician who has manoeuvred himself into becoming president-for-life of Greater Russia. Critics of the great man somehow end up very dead. The latest target, Alexei Navalny, eluded death by poisoning where others did not, but Vladimir Putin is not finished with him. After recovering in a Berlin hospital from the attempt to kill him, Mr. Navalny insisted he must return to Russia.
It is his home, he said. And, of course, he has important work to do, defying the divine authority of the man who would be imperial ruler of Greater Russia. The man who is expanding Russia bit by bit, to draw back into the fold however involuntarily, former satellites. Georgia and Ukraine were his first choices, making other countries once part of the Soviet Union, extremely nervous over their independent futures, a formula to expand Moscow's influence and power with Mr. Putin at the helm, that NATO defies.
With Crimea firmly back in his grasp, and the Donbass teetering toward Russia, the West has reacted with dismay and a series of warnings that have done nothing to persuade Mr. Putin he is on the wrong track. His influence now more stable in the Middle East, firmly entrenched in Syria, with Russian warplanes continuing to bomb Sunni Syrian rebel areas, their hospitals and markets, racking up more deaths in Bashar al-Assad's uncivil war, Russia has gained both a deep sea port and an air terminal and the 'respect' that comes with raw power.
Alexei Navalny and his fervid supporters are fixed with the idea that with Mr. Putin gone, Russia can become a normal state, a democratic nation, one that can respect the boundaries of its near-abroad neighbours, a Russia where corruption and secrecy, police action and interference in the affairs of other countries can come to an end. The trouble with their blueprint for reform of course, is that Mr. Putin has no intention whatever of retiring from his czarist role, and every intention of removing the irritants to his rule.
Imprisoned on a transparently absurd pretext of breaking his parole when he was miraculously recovering from a plot to silence him forever, Mr. Navalny is now in frail health, although prison authorities where he has been on a hunger strike, describe his physical condition as 'satisfactory'. They would, of course, use that descriptive since his ailing body and increasing frailty is seen by prison authorities as satisfactory to their plan to please their president.
The reformers will not be easily silenced. Navalny allies have plans to unleash the largest protests in modern Russian history in two days' time, even as Washington has warned Russia that should Mr. Navalny die in prison as a result of his hunger strike, there will be a huge price to pay. Mr. Navalny's critical condition, with medical tests showing his kidneys are on the way to failure and the potential for cardiac arrest is a growing concern, sees his allies determined to launch a protest the size of which will make certain its message cannot be overlooked.
Those same supporters, or the elite among them, have been harassed and imprisoned for the same reasons Mr. Navalny has been put out of practical commission. Foreign ministers of the European Union are 'discussing' the Navalny case with pledges to hold Moscow to account should a worst-case scenario emerge. Pro-Navalny protests have been forcefully broken up, with thousands detained. Mr. Putin will no doubt feel extremely vexed that the huge protest planned as a demonstration that cannot be ignored, will occur on the very day that he gives a state-of-the=nation addess.
Navalny, sneer Russian authorities, is exaggerating his medical condition for sympathy and effect, anxious to have the public attention focused on him. Those same authorities insist that he has refused prison medical care. "He will not be allowed to die in prison, but I can say that Mr. Navalny, he behaves like a hooligan", stated Russia's ambassador to Britain, Andrei Kelin in a BBC interview on Sunday.
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| Alexei Navalny during a court hearing in Moscow in February. Photograph: Moscow City Court press service/AFP/Getty Images |
Labels: Demonstrations, Deteriorating Health, Imprisoned, Putin Critic Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, April 20, 2021
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