Moscow’s prosecutor office ordered today the nationwide office of 44-year-old dissident Alexi Navalyn shut down, prompting howls from Western governments and the press as a return to Soviet-style totalitarian rule. Navalny’s sits in Russia’s IK-2 penal colony serving out a two-year-eight-month prison sentence for violation terms of his probation after recuperating from alleged Novichok nerve agent poisoning last summer. Moscow’s prosecutor petitioned a court to brand Navalny’s network AKA Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption, as an extremist group. Whether admitted to by Navalny’s backers, his organization seeks nothing short of toppling Putin 22-year reign of power. Navalny wanted to run against Putin in 2018 before he was banned from the slate of candidates. Navlny’s chief of staff Leonid Volkov promised widespread street demonstrations last week.
Navalny’s nationwide network was established as a political organization to help him run against 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Navalny ignores the history when June 1, 2005 another challenger, former Yukos oil billionaire tycoon Mikhail Khordorkovsky was sentenced to 14 years in a Siberia prison. Khodorkovsky went from Russia’s richest oligarch to eating fish soup in a Siberian prison. Putin let Khordorkovsky out of prison Dec. 30, 2013 on the condition that he’s exiled to Switzerland. Navalny thought things would be different for him, not realizing that Putin hasn’t changed, if anything resorts to old Soviet-era tactics dealing with dissidents. Navalny made no bones of the fact that he seeks to oust Putin from power making him, like Khordorkovsky, a threat to his power. Yet if you listen to Western governments or the press, they see Navalny’s as an anti-corruption activist.
If labeled by a court as an “extremist group,” Navalny’s nationwide network would be banned, including all personnel working for the common purpose to getting rid of Putin. “Tens of thousands of peaceful activists and the staff of Alexi Navalny’s organization are in grave danger—if their organizations are deemed ‘extremist’ they will be at imminent risk of criminal prosecution,” said Natalia Zyiagina, Director of Amnesty International’s Moscow office. Zyiagina said the crack down on Navalny’s group was the most extreme since the Soviet Union. Western government and the press expect Putin to tolerate an organization designed to topple his government. When the Capitol riot and mob scene happened Jan. 6, the U.S. government accused former President Donald Trump, not a known revolutionary like Navalny, of “inciting and insurrection.” Trump was accused of a coup d’etat.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and nine House managers impeached Trump and tried to convict him in the U.S. Senate of “incitement of insurrection.” Trump didn’t, like Navalny, command a nationwide network of insurrectionists seeking to topple the U.S. government. If Zviagina thinks a court order branding Navalny’s group as an “extremist” group is a Soviet-era tactic, what does she think of what the U.S. Congress did to a sitting president? Trump was treated worse than Navalny, when you consider Trump isn’t part of Proud Boys, Boogaloo or any other extremist group. To Pelosi and her acolytes in the House, the Republican Party is an extremist group that must be eliminated. “It’s a total travesty of justice and lawlessness once again in Putin’s Russia,” said top Navalny associated Lyubov Sobol. It’s a “travesty of justice” to ban a revolutionary group to oust Putin.
President Joe Biden, 78, and his 58-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken, demanded April 17 that Putin release Navalny from prison. Can you imagine if Putin demanded that Biden release Proud Boys and Boogaloo activists that trespassed in the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6? Elected officials would scream Russian interference in U.S. democracy. Since taking office Jan. 20, Biden has done everything possible to alienate Russia and China, defending Navalny and accusing Beijing of genocide on Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang province. “Leader and members” of Navalny’s foundation “continue to carry out unlawful activities, for instance, hold unlawful mass public events . . . . for example on April 21”—referring to last Wednesday’s disappointing turnout for rallies around Russia. Navalny’s. Navalny’s network was not about fighting corruption it was a plot to get rid of Putin.
No elected official in the U.S. or European Union would tolerate for one second a nationwide revolutionary organization pretending to fight corruption but actually seeking the overthrow of the national government. Putin understands that Western governments want him out of power but what they don’t get is that the next regime could be far worse when it comes to democracy or human rights. “Labeling us as extremists—contrary to the common sense and to the laws of this country, because obviously we’re not involved in an extremism—is quite a serious attack on our organization. We will have to survive in completely conditions,” Sobol said. Sobol, Volkov and other Navalny’s lieutenants won’t admit that purpose of the organization is to topple Putin’s government by what ever means necessary, including mass public demonstrations. All recognize now that they are unofficially out of business.
