Without him, Putin’s transition to total political invulnerability seems complete.

“The cause of death is being investigated,” Russia’s prison authorities announced after Alexei Navalny died in Penal Colony No. 3 just above the Arctic Circle on Friday.

But whichever way you look at it, it’s already clear what killed him: Vladimir Putin’s enmity.

For years, Navalny and the Russian president have been locked in a brutal battle royal that was unlikely to end without the death of one them.

That somewhat macabre prognosis turned into a commonplace adage among many Russians — even among Navalny’s own supporters.

And now it has finally happened. Only a day after he was filmed at a court hearing — cracking jokes and seemingly in high spirits — it was announced the 47-year-old collapsed suddenly on a walk in prison, and died after an attempt by an ambulance crew to revive him.

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  • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
    1·
    4 months ago

    This is not someone to be celebrated. Use his death as an expose on the silencing of dissent in Russia but as nothing more.

    He was a Russian fascist with well documented association with the neo-Nazis in the early 2000s then turned into a pro-Western liberal who opposes Putin.

    Edit: 2011 NY Times profile about Navalny (CW: racism):

    Liberals, meanwhile, have deep reservations about him, because he espouses Russian nationalist views. He has appeared as a speaker alongside neo-Nazis and skinheads, and once starred in a video that compares dark-skinned Caucasus militants to cockroaches. While cockroaches can be killed with a slipper, he says that in the case of humans, “I recommend a pistol.”

    Not to mention he voluntarily went back to Russia after believing they tried to have him killed. I don’t know what he expected

    Also the video of him being racist is still up on his personal YouTube channel to be clear. It is not a position he ever distanced himself from.