A brief analysis on Alexei Navalny
2 min readCompiled from my Twitter feed
Some of you may know I visited Russia in 1991. I have always had a keen interest in Russian history and politics. So, it should come as no surprise that I have quietly kept a close eye on the ordeal of Alexei Navalny. His ordeal keeps bringing me back to the words of Andrei Sakharov, physicist, cosmologist, philosopher, and human rights activist. Visiting his apartment during my trip in 1991 was one of the most powerful moments of my life and I rarely speak of it.
Sakharov wrote publicly that the “[Soviet state] is similar to a cancer cell – with its messianism and expansionism, its totalitarian suppression of dissent, the authoritarian structure of power, with a total absence of public control in the most important decisions in domestic and foreign policy, a closed society that does not inform its citizens of anything substantial, closed to the outside world, without freedom of travel or the exchange of information.” (Adam Smith Institute, 2019)
Looking at the Russia today under Putin, it is clear to see how Russia is falling back to this state. Organizations like the FSB focus on suppressing freedom of expression, clamping down on journalists, activists, and human-rights defenders. (The Atlantic, 2019)
It is my opinion that the last four years have further empowered the Russian government to reestablish authoritarian rule, thus return to the days of the Soviet Union before the 1991 coup. The United States’ inaction has made us complicit in the ordeal of Alexei Navalny.
Addendum
The comparison between the two is not lost on Moscow or London, with articles in the Times of London calling for Navalny to follow in Sakharov’s footsteps and be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It is ironic that Moscow is now trying to bury his legacy as an editorial in the Moscow Times referred to Navalny as the new Sakharov.
It is one hundred years since the birth of Sakharov. Upon this occasion, the leaders of the United States and Russia came together. Perhaps, in another time, we would have had the moral gravitas to have done more than point out Russia’s human rights failings, especially in relation to its treatment of political dissidents like Navalny. Instead, President Biden was put in the position of repairing the reputation of the country and reversing the foreign policy disasters of the former administration, all while facing a sharply divided Congress. (The New Yorker, 2021) We are put in the position of working with our European partners if we want to take the moral high ground and face down authoritarian regimes like Putin’s for the sake of dissidents like Navalny and for the legacy of Sakharov.
References
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/andrei-sakharov
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/06/28/joe-biden-vladimir-putin-and-the-weight-of-history
