Navalny and Russia
It feels like a wind of change is blowing across Russia, and strengthening.
Has anyone here watched this video by Navalny which is currently doing the rounds?
Where do you think this is heading? Will (can) putin ever be removed?
Has anyone here watched this video by Navalny which is currently doing the rounds?
Where do you think this is heading? Will (can) putin ever be removed?
Comments (54)
Yes, one day Putin will be removed from office, perhaps by the undertaker. Or, maybe another crook will oust him and pick up where Putin left off. I don't expect a refreshing revolution and an outbreak of democratic virtue in the near term.
Also, he suffered a big electoral blow recently. He lost the White House.
I guess he went to get the second dose of novichok.
Sadly, Putin seems to be like tell'm-what-they-want-to-hear Trump, except with KGB spycraft. He seems to be popular with non-intellectuals, because he promises to make Russia great again : MRGA --- as in the Soviet Empire. But, unlike the US, Russia doesn't have an ingrained tradition of democracy to limit the populist persuasive power of ego-driven autocrats. :sad:
putin and co also fearmonger to attempt to get the populace on side:
But then there is the Hong Kong example, where massive demonstrations and tacit cooperation from some of the powers that be, the apparatchiks didn't crumble. Of course Russia and Hong Kong are vastly different.
They just need horns and animal skins.
Messenger: "The people are revolting."
King Hanover: "Yes, they certainly are."
Messenger: "What shall we do?"
King Hanover: "Release the hounds."
Yep: as I write this it's had over 79 million views :grin:
Quoting jamalrob
Fixed
I think they're entirely justified and I hope it has some momentum, although it's difficult to see how at the moment. And no, I stayed well away from the city centre. Getting arrested or kicked out of the country is something I want to avoid at all costs. Not only that but I don't feel like it's my fight, or maybe, I don't feel I know enough about it. I think on balance that Navalny is to be admired and supported right now, but his apparent past support of ethnic Russian nationalism isn't something I could get behind.
But that last point isn't all that significant here. Obviously the protesters were not nationalists in that sense; they were protesting against authoritarianism and corruption. Really it's just that I can't risk getting kicked out.
Of course, but I'm not so sure about it. Yet quite high numbers of arrested.
Remember Belarus? The mass demonstrations there? For what I know, Lukashenka is still President.
You see, there's a pattern. Russians do have protested against Putin for a long time.
Moscow protests in 2019:
Moscow protests in 2016:
Demonstrators in Russia mourn and protest the death of Boris Nemtsov 2015:
Who remembers Boris Nemtsov?
Moscow protests after Putin's re-election 2011:
And there may be many large demonstrations against Putin that I miss here.
So what's new now? Russians will try to copy Americans?
Or that the US doesn't have Agent Trumpov in the White House to praise Vlad, but this guy below?
Source?
Social media; apps like Tiktok are helping mobilize Russia's younger demographic against putin's regime.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rferl.org/amp/protests-russia-navalny-tiktok/31063626.html
If I was a Russian liberal opponent of the regime I'd be troubled that the only guy I could support once attended far-right marches, and during the short war between Russia and Georgia referred to Georgians as rodents, and urged the government to take more drastic action:
[quote=Navalny, 2008, through Google Translate]Russia should take the following steps (at least):
1. Provide serious military and financial assistance to South Ossetia and Abkhazia (to the extent that Abkhazia is ready to actually fight in South Ossetia).
2. Declare South Ossetia a non-flying zone and immediately shoot down all aircraft that are in this zone.
3. To declare a complete blockade of Georgia. Stop any communication with her.
4. [b]To expel from the Russian Federation all citizens of Georgia who are on our territory.
In the future, act according to the situation, but at the same time be aware that of course you really want to fire a cruise missile at the general staff of rodents, but the rodents are just waiting for this.[/b]
[/quote]
https://navalny.livejournal.com/274456.html
"Rodents" ("grizuny"), was a known ethnic slur against Georgians. He has since apologized for the slur but stood by the rest of it.
Generally it looks like he was somewhere around the xenophobic end of the Russian political spectrum, with a less-than-accommodating attitude to immigrants from the former Soviet republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia.
But as I've implied, I think this could be set aside in the fight against authoritarianism and corruption, and it's possible he has moderated his views. I'm certainly impressed by him at the moment. I'm not trying to cancel him as the pro-Putin tankies are no doubt spending all their time doing as I write this (I wasn't surprised to see the socialist Monthly Review peddling the idea that Navalny's return is a CIA plot).
As for Putin's nationalism, what exactly are you referring to? He's a pragmatist when it comes to issues of ethnicity, and more often than not emphasizes the multi-ethnic nature of Russia: one of the things he has always been afraid of is the country falling apart.
Wasn't social media around during the Arab Spring? Russian youth have had the net for a long time.
One fact to notice is that actually the Russian Opposition to Putin aren't actually very Pro-Western, or at least aren't politically correct when viewed from the West. It shows the distrust or suspicion Russians do have towards the West. Nemtsov had been a deputy prime minister during the Yeltsin years and an outspoke critic of Putin, while Navalnyi I think hasn't held office. Yet I think both Navalny (and the late Nemtsov) are obvious signs that there truly is an opposition towards Putin and Russians don't fear so much the government. Soviet times have gone and Putin cannot rule like a Soviet leader.
(Navalnyi and his wife with the late Boris Nemtsov, who was murdered in 2015)
As far as I can tell, Nemtsov was actually quite pro-West. For example, unlike Navalny he was against the annexation of Crimea, and supportive of Ukraine's closer ties with the West.
In short, the simple thing is that the Russian opposition towards Putin aren't stooges of the West and if (a big if) they do come into power after Putin, it won't be all dancing on roses for the West.
putin and by extension RT seem to think so.
I think it's just actually that 20 years is far too much of one leader in one country...if the people aren't Finns, I might add. Putin simply couldn't retire with Dmitri Medvedev taking the helm after him. At least that would have kept the thin veil, or rather facade, of democracy in Russia. Now there isn't any.
Until now, the first and last Russian leader to peacefully retire:
What do you mean?
We had a President from 1956 to 1982 and only when totally incapacitated of old age did he retire. He won four terms in free elections and one extension of a term (the third). And wasn't a dictator, no demonstrations against him, no secret police hounding dissidents. Of course, he (a centrist btw) was the main man of the Soviet Union and a good friends with the Soviet leadership. Yes, he was the embodiment of Finlandization. He died in 1986 at the age of 86.
Some politicians argued that he should run for the sixth Presidential term. Afterwards my country opted for two-term limits. Whopee!
Yes, Finns are a bit different. Saatana!
Wonder if he gets a cell mate with tuberculosis or/and Covid-19.
More waves of protests across Russia. Navalny dieing. putin with his horde of morons on the Ukrainian border.
putin needs to be taken out already.
It seems that restraint in the use of deadly violence (yet otherwise maintaining a large crackdown), persistence and not backing down DOES make it. At least the Western media will get bored with it and not report it, so out of sight, out of mind.
How is the situation now in Hong Kong? I think that the Chinese authorities are now in control.
How is the situation now in Belarus? - Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was last month calling for 2nd wave of protests from excile. I haven't noticed huge demonstrations anymore though.
The situation is far more bleak than you portray it: the totalitarian regimes don't have to unleash a wave of all out violence like some desperate Ghaddafi clinging on power and bring the country into total anarchy, their security machines are working well.