World News: Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny Provokes Russia’s Future

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Parent Category: News

Category: World News - Europe

Published on Sunday, 24 January 2021 14:13

Written by Olivier Longhi

Supporters of Alexei Navalny, Russia’s opposition leader and Putin nemesis, who was immediately jailed after returning to Moscow after recuperating from poisoning, have taken to the streets in record number protesting the treatment and demanding his release.

If the demonstrations of opponents led by Alexei Navalny highlight the confiscation of power operated by Vladimir Putin via a personal system dedicated to his sole profit, this internal protest cannot be enough. A Western position aimed at defending human rights in Russia must complement the threat.

To say that Vladimir Putin, current president of Russia, badly supports any form of opposition is an understatement. And to say, at the same time, that Alexei Navalny, irritates the resident of the Kremlin to the highest point, is also one.

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However, the detestation of the two men, the first being totally impervious to the conception that the second has of democracy and the freedoms inherent to them, highlights all the flaws of the Putin system thought out and embodied in the facts since the early 2000s, when Vladimir Putin took over from Boris Elstin.

Conceived on the basis of a co-optation that no longer even bother to hide, by an almost generalized muzzling of the press organs, by threats made against journalists when they are simply not assassinated in the image of Anna Politovoskaia (2006), by endemic corruption and an increase in favors which benefit those close to the Russian president, the regime of Vladimir Putin finally tends today to look more like a personal affair than sound management of a nation that is nevertheless rich in thousands of assets.

Redistribution and Protest

At a time when Russia is trying to restore its international image in a context of redistribution of the cards on an international scale, redistribution among other things fueled by the election of Joe Biden in the United States and the effects of the pandemic of coronavirus, Vladimir Putin, in the person of Alexei Navalny, must face, not one more opponent but a determined opponent, whose action has received the tacit blessing of the West.

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As a result, difficult to eliminate as an obscure regional journalist or an overly vehement whistleblower, Alexei Navalny today knows how to influence the Putin system. Because the libertarian demands and the multiple denunciations of Alexei Navalny aimed at revealing the reality of the Putin system certainly have the objective, and the effect, of destabilizing the Kremlin and its organization but also present the danger for the former zealous officer of the KGB to very serious blows to an ultimately fragile whole.

Based essentially on a ubiquitous police and army, on reflexes dating from the Soviet era and the obsolete principle that the Russians need a strong power and a strong man at their head, the Putin system could falter so much. scale of the challenge is gaining greater ground every day. Proof of the threat represented by Navalny: hardly had he set foot on Russian soil when he was imprisoned.

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Few of the democracies act in this way with their opponents ... Because for those who doubt it, Putin's Russia today is in no way a democracy but rather a democtatorship or dictacracy, a clever mixture of asserted authority and sprinkled with democratic principles quickly flouted.

Liberation and Globalization

If the subject animates Western students in Political Science, it is on the other hand a reality lived by a Russian people of which one does not know if it accepts or refuses, silent and wait-and-see, the policy of Putin. In view of the current demonstrations, everything suggests that the Russian people are today on the road to liberation.

But Vladimir Putin's resources are still numerous, even unsuspected, and capable of stifling any rebellion. Surprisingly, and by a principle of proportional inversion, the more the opposition of Alexei Navalny turns out to be strong and structured, the more Vladimir Putin's reaction to this same opposition turns out to be sectarian and authoritarian.

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Does this mean that for the Putin system to become more flexible, Alexei Navalny must stop his libertarian action? Some will argue, and rightly so, that any opposition, even if initially unsuccessful, is beneficial in the long run because it sows the seeds of future liberation.

However, we should not forget the international component where Russia is not at all comfortable. Dependent on its oil sector (Russia is the second largest producer of oil in the world), Russia also remains dependent on the international market in which it struggles to fit.

Although considered an emerging country, it is very likely that it will be so for a long time to come, a situation of which Vladimir Putin is aware because he is fully aware of the issue of Human Rights and its future treatment in Russia will also condition its place in the ball of globalization. But this place will have to be done without him.

Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist, recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, a press and publishing consultant, and a communications consultant.