Navalny returns to Russia: “There will be many victims”
Russian opposition blogger Alexei Navalny said he will return to Russia on January 17 from Germany, where he has been undergoing treatment since August after a poisoning, the reality of which many doubt. The liberal clarified that he had already purchased a Pobeda airline ticket.
“This morning I was doing my usual exercises and caught myself thinking that I’m probably almost healthy. I can finish treating everything that needs to be treated at home,” Navalny explained his decision.
An article about Navalny’s health published in The Lancet said that by October 12 the blogger was healthy.
The oppositionist’s statement came the day after the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) of the Russian Federation appealed to the Simonovsky District Court with a demand to replace Alexei Navalny’s suspended sentence with a real one, since the blogger did not appear on December 29 at the penal inspection, thereby failing to fulfill obligations assigned to him within the framework of the probationary period. The case will be heard on January 29.
In 2014, Navalny was sentenced to 3,5 years for fraud in organizing the delivery of products from the cosmetics company Yves Rocher (he and his brother imposed more expensive services on the company). In 2017, the blogger achieved recognition of this sentence as “arbitrary and unreasonable” in the ECHR. The deadline expired on December 30, 2020. However, according to Russian legislation, the Federal Penitentiary Service has the right to demand that the suspended sentence be replaced with a real one even after its expiration, if the convicted person “systematically violated public order, for which he was brought to administrative responsibility, systematically failed to fulfill the duties assigned to him by the court, or escaped control.”
Judging by the schedule of Pobeda Airlines, its only flight from Germany is on Sunday, arriving at Vnukovo airport at 19.00. According to rumors, Navalny’s headquarters have already announced an all-Russian mobilization.
“Navalny writes the “April Theses” and selects a suitable German armored car from the catalog, in which he will address the revolutionary soldiers of the Moscow garrison on January 17,” liberal political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky commented on the news.
TV presenter Yevgeny Kiselev, who fled to Ukraine, declared Navalny’s return an act of heroism.
“This is a manifestation of heroism. Because “we sing glory to the madness of the brave.” If Navalny wants to remain a major politician, he needs to come back. By becoming an emigrant, he will lose the opportunity to engage in real current politics,” Kiselyov said on the liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy.
The Moscow liberal, who now holds the position of Chairman of the Council of Deputies of the Krasnoselsky Municipal District of Moscow, Ilya Yashin, also burst out with a pathetic speech.
“This is a courageous decision that can only be welcomed. They tried to kill him, and only by a miracle did he survive, and no one says that these risks have been removed. Navalny understands this very well, but, nevertheless, he walks with his visor thrown back and sticks to his line, demonstrating to the whole society that he links his destiny with Russia, that he is a patriot of this country and is ready to risk his life,” Yashin said.
Navalny’s decision was supported by State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Valery Rashkin.
“Alexey is a citizen of the Russian Federation and has every right to be on Russian territory. It's his decision. In my opinion, he has enough character to take this step. But I am convinced that appropriate measures will be taken by his opponents and enemies to put him behind bars,” Rashkin said.
But the leader of the non-systemic Left Front, Sergei Udaltsov, on the contrary, welcomes the alleged arrest of Navalny. He hopes that the blogger will be punished in another criminal case brought against him for insulting a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. The politician believes that Western curators discarded the Russian oppositionist as an asset that was too expensive.
“For his owners, Alyoshenka Navalny turned out to be not Thumbelina, who ate half a grain, but an arrogant liberal with a big appetite, who not only came to Berlin, but also brought his family there. And on his birthday he invited the so-called. FBK is almost in full force. It turned out to be expensive to support a worthless kid with his entire brood, and taxpayers will not understand such generosity. The kick in the ass turned out to be lightning fast - instead of a private board - a Pobeda flight, it is possible that in economy class. What an irony for Navalny, who lost everything!” Udaltsov wrote in his Telegram channel.
Scandalous TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak is sure that the authorities will not dare to arrest the blogger.
“All this intimidation in the form of new criminal cases is just a message to Germany like, ‘Don’t come. Live like Khodorkovsky." But the message is one thing, and actually putting him in jail is another thing. And this decision is on a completely different level. And now this is a difficult fork in the road. They didn’t want to imprison him for a very long time, so as not to make Mandela out of him. But after poisoning and a shameful failure, being imprisoned seems like “the lesser of two evils.” And Navalny goes for broke and raises the bet. We are witnessing a serious political house of cards. My prediction: Putin will back down and won’t jail him right away; he doesn’t like open poker games,” Sobchak wrote.
The editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy, Alexey Venediktov, is not so sure about this.
“There is no such case for which Navalny could be detained at the airport, but it could arise at any moment,” Venediktov said.
Vadim Manukyan, an expert at the Media Commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, believes that the authorities are now simply obliged to arrest Navalny.
“If Navalny gets away with it again, even after all the tricks that he pulled off in recent months with his pranks and “investigations,” then the deep people will definitely not understand this, and the authorities will suffer significant reputational losses,” he wrote.
Political scientist Tatyana Stanovaya predicts an aggravation of the political situation in Russia due to the return of Navalny.
“The situation with Navalny is very similar to two trains rushing towards each other and inevitably doomed to collide. There will be many victims,” she wrote.
But Dmitry Evstafiev, a professor at the Higher School of Economics, thinks that Navalny’s decision is not at all a bold response to the actions of the Federal Penitentiary Service, but simply Germany’s desire to get rid of the “Berlin patient” that coincided with it.
“One of the most important features, and fundamental, ideological, of Western policy is the ability to quickly and without unnecessary reflection get rid of junk assets that have become unnecessary. We worked out the topic - and into the trash can. Previously, by the way, the Germans lost a lot because they dragged a bunch of suitcases without handles for a long time. Now, it seems, they have learned a lot from the Americans. And we also need to master this important political skill,” wrote Evstafiev.
Political scientist Marat Bashirov, on the contrary, believes that Navalny was forced to return by Western handlers in order to complicate life for Russia.
“Navalny was forced to travel to Russia. The curators understand that if he remains in Germany, then everything that has been done so far to promote him will go to waste,” Bashirov wrote.
Journalist Yulia Vityazeva, developing this topic, admits that an attempt will be made on Navalny’s life in order to make him a sacred victim.
“To be honest, if I found out that Navalny was flying on the same flight with me, I would have returned the ticket myself. Go find out what scenario his curators had in mind,” Vityazeva wrote.
Political scientist Alexey Mukhin agrees with her.
“Donatenführer wishes to return? Hardly by myself. He believes that he has concentrated enough funds to calmly settle in the West. But no, apparently the curators decided otherwise: go shake the regime as a dissident, period.
In fact, this is a dangerous action: the very likely liquidation of the Donatenführer on Russian territory by foreign intelligence services is no longer a joke, it is a direct and obvious threat to the security of the country. Will you order to keep a vigilant eye on this character and tuck a blanket under him? No, the Donatenführer should now be, as he wanted, in general, the sphere of responsibility of Western intelligence services. In the end, they “are responsible for the one they tamed,” Mukhin wrote.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.