Or more precisely: ‘… has been slowly killed in a concentration camp’, after previous attempts at his life had failed.
On 16 February 2024, a few weeks before Russia’s next presidential ‘election’, Russia’s most prominent critic of Vladimir Putin has died. One day before he was filmed, seemingly in good spirits, defending himself against new accusations. We will probably never know what caused his death. In any case, it is no exaggeration to state that, after repeated attacks on his life and the brutal conditions in an arctic prison camp (which one could also call a concentration camp), his survival had been in danger for quite some time. In my article ‘A requiem for Putin’s victims’, published on 7 November 2023, I called Navalny “another [at the time of this writing still living] brave martyr for Russia’s freedom”. He was the last nationally recognized opponent of Putin’s dictatorship, the blatant corruption of his regime and his brutal war against Ukraine.
Navalny’s video enrages Putin
On YouTube you can find a two hour video investigation Navalny reveals investigation into ‘Putin’s Palace’. Here is a short Deutsche Welle extract. It shows drone pictures from a pompous palace on the Black Sea shore, built with taxpayer money, posted just two days after Navalny’s return to Russia in September 2020 after his medical treatment in Berlin. While the Kremlin strongly denied any involvement, it seems obvious that Navalny’s personal attack against Putin sealed his fate. The Kremlin’s ruler would not let Navalny endanger his power again – as he had done before in 2011, leading numerous public protests, before Putin’s re-election on 4 March 2012. After previous attempts to poison him had failed, the president just ordered his judges to ‘legally’ sentence Navalny to long-term imprisonment, thereby removing him from public life.
Putin’s Black Sea palace reminds me of Hitler’s Berghof on Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden, Bavaria. Absolute dictators do need pompous residences! Anybody questioning their lifestyle must fear for his life. Attempts on Hitler’s life never achieved success. He finally killed himself when his war was definitely lost.
Can we get rid of Putin?
As Navalny’s death demonstrates, Putin will not be removed by domestic political opposition. Putin seems to have achieved almost absolute – fascist – control over his country. Powered with nuclear weapons, the Russian dictator cannot be defeated by military means directly. The only way is to counter his military endeavours abroad – by making Ukraine strong enough to resist and credibly defending the security of the Baltic states and other new NATO members.
Will western countries, particularly Europeans, wake up and draw the necessary conclusions from the death of Alexei Navalny?
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