With the death of Russian opposition politician and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, President Putin has once again raised his middle finger at the West. The cynical message he sends is that he doesn’t care about anyone when it comes to retaining his power.
It was already known that he does not shy away from political assassinations. For example, in 2015, opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was shot dead a stone’s throw from the Kremlin on the eve of the publication of his report on the veiled Russian involvement in the ‘civil war’ that broke out in the Donbas in 2014. A similar fate befell journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006, who had criticized Putin’s brutal war in Chechnya. Whichever way you look at it, it is clear that Putin must once again be held responsible for the murder of an important opponent.
Navalny’s cause of death is currently unclear. But since his arrest in 2021 and his sentence to a long prison sentence during which he was moved from prison camp to prison camp, the Putin regime has done everything it can to destroy him physically and mentally. The fact that this did not work out for three years says everything about the great resilience of Navalny, with whom nothing seemed to be wrong the day before his death.
It is naive to think that after the failed poison assassination attempt on Navalny in 2020, Putin would stop at eliminating him for good. Because even in the prison camp he still encouraged his followers to resist. Navalny thus increasingly became the symbol of the fight against Putin’s repressive regime, especially among young people throughout Russia. The fact that he called on his followers prior to his arrest to continue that struggle even after his death says everything about his martyrdom.
At the same time, the murder of Navalny, a month before the Russian presidential elections, shows that Putin is concerned about his support among the Russian population. Because even though Navalny did not pose a real obstacle to his re-election, his associates constantly tried to convince Russians not to vote for Putin through playful actions. And since Navalny, who exposed the fundamental corruption within the Putin regime with equally playful actions, enjoyed a lot of support, especially among the younger generation in Russia, it cannot be ruled out that Putin’s dream of a grand election victory with a high turnout will still be disrupted.
The fact that Putin longs for this massive support has everything to do with the fact that he is looking for legitimacy for his war in Ukraine, to which he has committed his fate. He cannot therefore afford a defeat in the elections in this respect.
Navalny’s death has dashed hopes for a future in a free and democratic Russia, especially among young Russians. The interesting question now is what will happen to Navalny’s remains in the coming days. Will that be released to his family? Will Navalny be buried in Moscow? Will his supporters show up there en masse? Such indicators can show not only how strong Putin’s position actually is, but also whether Navalny does not have another surprise in store for him posthumously.