Navalny returns to Russia

I'm surprised he's survived for so long.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/world/europe/navalny-poison-russia.html

Hope he's ok!  

Poison confirmed

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/02/europe/alexey-navalny-novichok-intl/index.html

Lucky they were able to fly him out of Russia!

I highly recommend a documentary on Netflix - Citizen K.  Citizen K is a 2019 documentary film about Mikhail Khodorkovsky, written and directed by Alex Gibney. It is a film about post-Soviet Russia featuring Khodorkovsky, Anton Drel, Maria Logan, Alexei Navalny, Tatyana Lysova, Leonid Nevzlin, Igor Malashenko and Derk Sauer.

This is one story Trump will never have a comment on.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/08/27/trump-navalny-poison-reponse/

Or his comment will be - there's an ongoing investigation.  Just like the Blake incident.  

jamie said:

Poison confirmed

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/02/europe/alexey-navalny-novichok-intl/index.html

Lucky they were able to fly him out of Russia!

I highly recommend a documentary on Netflix - Citizen K.  Citizen K is a 2019 documentary film about Mikhail Khodorkovsky, written and directed by Alex Gibney. It is a film about post-Soviet Russia featuring Khodorkovsky, Anton Drel, Maria Logan, Alexei Navalny, Tatyana Lysova, Leonid Nevzlin, Igor Malashenko and Derk Sauer.

This is one story Trump will never have a comment on.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/08/27/trump-navalny-poison-reponse/

Or his comment will be - there's an ongoing investigation.  Just like the Blake incident.  

"With regard to Mr. Navalny, he said: “I don’t know exactly what happened. I think it’s tragic. It’s terrible. It should not happen. We have not had any proof yet but I will take a look. It is interesting that everybody is always mentioning Russia. I don’t mind you mentioning Russia, but I think probably China at this point is a nation that you should be talking about much more so than Russia because the things that China is doing are far worse.”

He acknowledged that German officials were definitive about what happened, but said, “We have not seen it ourselves.”

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/09/04/us/trump-vs-biden

I hope Alexei stays safe:

https://apnews.com/article/vladimir-putin-moscow-arrests-europe-russia-56e06f50eab494213d09346a5d9b4e69

Navalny seems to be gambling with martyrdom... There were new young protesters supporting him out in Russian cities this weekend.

Putin is likely trying to figure out how he's more likely to retain power and control. I wouldn't be surprised if things get dramatic.

I wish they had an English overdub to this:

Hang in there Russia!  

jamie said:

I wish they had an English overdub to this:

Hang in there Russia!  

 What's the Russian word for "Mar A Lago"?

Vlad should produce an infomercial - "How to own 20 palaces on a $110,000/yr income".

We're just lucky Donny didn't have friends in the top military positions.

Alexei's wife is no detained:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/31/europe/russia-navalny-protests-intl/index.html

Rotenberg claims palace is his:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55872249

Probably everyone who did research on the palace movie has been silenced. 

I hope Alexei's next movie will be: How Arkady Rotenberg acquired his wealth.

supposedly he is being held for 30 days-wait n see ( alive? drugged? etc) 

Navalny could go away for years:

https://www.khou.com/article/news/nation-world/navalny-faces-court-that-may-jail-him-for-years/507-940c552d-2a9d-43ce-91fb-bef89551ddcf

The question the Vlad is wrestling with is - with Alexei jailed up - they can beat back the protests and they will diminish in time.  Alexei out of jail is an unknown.  Ugh - what a shame, it's in the hand of the people.  

2.5 years.  Vlad chose a smart amount of time.  Had it been 20 years, this would have really fired up Navalny's base.  2.5 gives Vlad the opportunity to figure out how to address the uprising and muffles Alexei's message.  

he wont make it out alive

Navalny is a right-wing nationalist.  Not sure why people are tuning in on his little show other than he's the enemy of our enemy.  

In addition to the Putin thing, Navalny's shift to focus on anti-corruption has gained him more of a following than his previous nationalist/anti-Muslim, etc, focus.

And surviving nerve agent applied to his underwear, then getting one of the people who did it to confess on a recording is a compelling story.  And it doesn't hurt that he looks like he could be from central casting.

sprout said:

In addition to the Putin thing, Navalny's shift to focus on anti-corruption has gained him more of a following than his previous nationalist/anti-Muslim, etc, focus.

And surviving nerve agent applied to his underwear, then getting one of the people who did it to confess on a recording is a compelling story.  And it doesn't hurt that he looks like he could be from central casting.

I was trying to analyze my reaction to him when I saw this thread yesterday. Every clip I see of him, I find myself captivated and hearing Lara's Theme in the background.  

 Maddow has hyped him over the past year and the story is a nice blend of politcal thriller and romance novel. Everybody loves a revolutionary.

Morganna said:

sprout said:

In addition to the Putin thing, Navalny's shift to focus on anti-corruption has gained him more of a following than his previous nationalist/anti-Muslim, etc, focus.

And surviving nerve agent applied to his underwear, then getting one of the people who did it to confess on a recording is a compelling story.  And it doesn't hurt that he looks like he could be from central casting.

I was trying to analyze my reaction to him when I saw this thread yesterday. Every clip I see of him, I find myself captivated and hearing Lara's Theme in the background.  

 Maddow has hyped him over the past year and the story is a nice blend of politcal thriller and romance novel. Everybody loves a revolutionary.

 Even if he's a ultranationalist, antisemitic thug? To me, just being anti-Putin, is a start, but needs more positive characteristics.

Dennis_Seelbach said:

 Even if he's a ultranationalist, antisemitic thug? To me, just being anti-Putin, is a start, but needs more positive characteristics.

 I'm doing more reading about him now. Can you recommend an article about him? I admittedly have a romanticized view of him based on the coverage I've seen. 

I'm reading this article from my search. Sounds like a mixed review, some worrisome behavior, some statements he has walked back. https://www.newsweek.com/russia-court-navalny-sentence-past-future-stands-trial-1566315

Maybe when Trump and Covid are in the rear view mirror those of us who consume cable news will get a broader view of foriegn affairs.  Looked for some coverage by Fareed Zakaria  on GPS but it didn't get into any negatives.

Share whatever you have found. I usually like to defend my heroes. For the time being, I'll have to stick to Sen. Cory Booker and put Dr. Zhivago back on the shelf.

Now Russia wants to forcefeed Navalny?

https://news.sky.com/story/prison-staff-threaten-to-force-feed-putin-critic-navalny-after-hunger-strike-weight-loss-12273547

I have to say - I'm a bit opposed to the hunger strike tactic.  Seems like this will speed up and will be used as the root cause for his death.  

jamie said:

Now Russia wants to forcefeed Navalny?

https://news.sky.com/story/prison-staff-threaten-to-force-feed-putin-critic-navalny-after-hunger-strike-weight-loss-12273547

I have to say - I'm a bit opposed to the hunger strike tactic.  Seems like this will speed up and will be used as the root cause for his death.  

 If we can even believe anything that is being said. He may want to speed up his death. I imagine that he is being tortured and force feeding has been on the torture menu for years.

Anyone catch the Navalny doc on CNN?  I enjoyed the process the guy from bellingcat - here's the story that's really well documented in the film:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/14/europe/russia-navalny-agents-bellingcat-ward/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/21/europe/russia-navalny-poisoning-underpants-ward/index.html

jamie said:

2.5 years.  Vlad chose a smart amount of time.  Had it been 20 years, this would have really fired up Navalny's base.  2.5 gives Vlad the opportunity to figure out how to address the uprising and muffles Alexei's message.  

They gave him another 9 years for fraud and contempt.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/22/russia-navalny-fraud-prison-sentence/

And - another 15 

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/05/31/kremlin-foe-navalny-says-facing-15-more-years-in-prison-a77852

Thought this thread needed this update:

https://apnews.com/article/russia-navalny-prison-crackdown-putin-28909decb74b55c639c6782d8f4a1c1d

jamie said:

Thought this thread needed this update:

https://apnews.com/article/russia-navalny-prison-crackdown-putin-28909decb74b55c639c6782d8f4a1c1d

Do the Putin mouthpieces have an explanation?

nohero said:

jamie said:

Thought this thread needed this update:

https://apnews.com/article/russia-navalny-prison-crackdown-putin-28909decb74b55c639c6782d8f4a1c1d

Do the Putin mouthpieces have an explanation?

At this point, I doubt that Putin cares about what people think.  The only thing that matters is for the West to make clear that our support for Ukraine is n+1 where n is the number of years Putin wants to spend killing Russian people and destroying Russia's economy.

RIP Alexei.  

Putin murders another political foe.