Author: Ilona Bērziņa
Could Alexei Navalny’s death in Russian prison serve as an impulse for the collapse of Putin’s criminal regime and will this murder force the West to join forces and provide wider and, more importantly, faster aid to Ukraine? Observer and commentator of Russian political developments, literary scholar and journalist Aleksejs Grigorjevs tells BNN about his vision.
“It’s difficult to say if Alexei Navalny’s murder could serve as the straw to “break the camel’s back”. Or whether or not it will change Russian people’s thinking. Difficult to say. We should remember the Latin phrase – Gutta cavat lapidem non vi, sed saepe cadendo – a water drop hollows a stone not by force, but by falling often. This is similar in Russia – a droplet after droplet, and no one knows which one will play the decisive role,” says Grigorjevs.
“In his book Bloodlands, American historian and one of the most notable researchers of Eastern European history Timothy Snyder accurately drew an equal sign between Stalin’s and Hitler’s regime when it came to attitude towards people. After the start of Putin’s war on Ukraine in 2022, Snyder wrote in The New York Times that the existing Russian regime is has turned from simply authoritarian to a fascist one, and I agree. But we also have to admit that Putin’s regime has been aggressive and bloody in both of its stages. Let’s remember the blowing of an apartment building in 1999 by the Russian power, the war on the Chechen people, the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the war on Georgia, the hybrid war against Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea, Boris Nemtsov’s murder.
Alexei Navalny’s murder in the Russian prison cannot be compared to the murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in 2015.
While the murder of Boris Nemtsov marked the start of the Russian regime becoming a fascist one, the murder of Alexei Navalny marked the end of this transformation process and Russia is now completely a fascist country,” claims Grigorjevs.
When asked about the opinion that Alexei Navalny should not have returned to Russia from Germany, where he was treated after the poisoning with Novichok nerve agent, Grigorjevs said he leans towards this opinion, but Navalny know where he was going back to. “It’s likely he know what he was signing up for, similarly how Christian martyrs were persecuted in Ancient Rome, knowingly choosing the martyr’s fate. Navalny knew what was waiting for him, but he returned to prove that even in prison he can oppose this regime. Kremlin and Putin were afraid of him. Navalny chose the role and path of a hero.”
Grigorjevs also says that despite the fact that Russian language to him is one of his native languages, Russia and the people there are foreign to him. “But if I was a real Russian, it would be a great shame to me. Alexei Navalny fought for Russians’ and Russia’s freedom, and the majority of Russians and the Russian elite let him be killed. This was done for their sake as well. It is not for nothing that Russians have a saying – shame is not smoke, it won’t bite your eyes.”
When asked to comment on Putin’s scandalous interview to American journalist Tucker Carlson, Grigorjevs rhetorically asked: “What was Putin’s main message to the West? That he shouldn’t be considered the devil with hooves and horns. He is simply an old man, who is slightly out of his mind and cannot stop talking about the ancient past, which has no meaning in modern times. So there is nothing to fear from him, perhaps he will take over Ukraine, and then the West won’t have to tighten their belts and spend so much money on defence… The saddest part is that his words will reach many ears. But we have to keep in mind that those are lies, and Putin and Putin’s Russia are the manifestation of the devil and hell. And the fact this absolute evil exists precisely in such an outwardly not full-minded old man does not change the essence of the matter. Alexei Navalny’s murder negates the message given to the West in the interview to Carlson. Putin really is nothing else than the devil himself with all his hooves and horns.
I hope Navaly’s fate will at least make the West whip itself into shape for a moment, and make another step in the right direction and provide faster aid to Ukraine. Will the West do it? It would be naive to hope for it, but I would like to.”
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