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I have my country and my convictions. And I don't want to give up on either. I can't betray either one. If your convictions mean anything, you must be ready to stand up for them. And, if necessary, make sacrifices [for them]. If you're not ready [to do that], then you have no convictions. You just think you do. But those aren't convictions or principles; they're just thoughts in your head.
It so happens that in today's Russia, I have to pay for my right to have and to openly express my convictions by sitting in solitary confinement. And, of course, I don't like being in prison. But I won't renounce my convictions or my homeland. My convictions aren't exotic, sectarian, or radical. On the contrary, everything I believe in is based on science and historical experience. Those in power must change. The best way to elect leaders is through honest and free elections. Everyone needs a fair court. Corruption destroys the state. There should be no censorship. The future lies with these principles.
Alexey Navalny, Russia's most famous dissident, has died. (4 June 1976 – 16 February 2024).
Returning to Russia in 2021, after having been treated in Berlin for novichok poisoning, Navalny was immediately arrested on arrival at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. Since then, he has been in and out of (but mostly in) solitary confinement all over the country, with his final station being the Polar Wolf penal colony in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Siberia.
On Monday, he had been visited by his parents. In reacting to the news of her son's death, his mother reacted:
"I don't want to hear any condolences. We saw our son in the colony on Feb. 12th. He was alive, healthy, cheerful."
More info here.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2024, @05:50PM (26 children)
Sounds like "suicide" to me.
Just like returning to Russia after you somehow survived having polonium tea with ex-KGB...
Or returning to a bear's cave after pissing off the bear.
Yeah, he's got convictions... Still "suicide" though.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by quietus on Friday February 16 2024, @06:01PM (2 children)
Many of us live our whole life without speaking up. Which is the worse suicide?
(Score: 4, Touché) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday February 16 2024, @09:13PM (1 child)
Returning to Russia when you've pissed off Putin enough that you had to flee Russia is either suicide or stupid. It's perfectly possible to speak up and be a very good and very efficient dissident from abroad. Just ask Edward Snowden.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2024, @09:21PM
Probably suicidal, but he did stay alive for some time. We can only speculate on what exactly killed him. Complications from his poisoning or fresh abuse in the gulag?
He is more likely to cause major changes in Russia as a "suicidal" martyr than he was as a living political activist.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Friday February 16 2024, @06:02PM (16 children)
Frankly, I don't get it either. The Crown Prince of Iran [wikipedia.org] has supporters in-country. Whether or not that works out for him remains to be seen, but he's alive and well. He can say whatever he wants with minimal fear from the current regime. For the most part, nobody blames him for not returning at this time.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday February 16 2024, @07:51PM (6 children)
Maybe it's the difference between people (Putin) who are driven by conquest, versus religious motives?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 16 2024, @08:25PM (3 children)
Given the choice, I'd rather some mundane conquest hungry dictator want me dead, than a bunch of religious zealots. The dictator might be compared to a rattle snake, while the religious zealots might be compared to a south American Bush Master.
“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”. – Major General Chesty Puller, USMC
(Score: 3, Funny) by khallow on Sunday February 18 2024, @06:12AM (2 children)
Putin seemed better at it than the religious zealots.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 18 2024, @03:31PM (1 child)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Jamal_Khashoggi [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Saudi_Arabia_mass_execution [wikipedia.org]
That doesn't begin to account for the facts, 1. The West mostly knows who Russia's executioners are and 2. Even the Saudis can't know who their own potential executioners are. Any random nutcase who believes in the $random_spiritual_leader might decide to execute you in some horrible fashion.
“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”. – Major General Chesty Puller, USMC
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 18 2024, @03:49PM
(Score: 4, Touché) by Whoever on Friday February 16 2024, @08:28PM
You think the leaders of Iran have religious motives? Well, I have this bridge to sell you ......
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2024, @08:54PM
> driven by conquest, versus religious motives?
Isn't this the difference between the rulers and the followers? The leaders are interested in conquest, and the way they stir up their people to fight and wage war is frequently through religion.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday February 17 2024, @12:20AM (5 children)
It's a very Russian thing to do, and a bit hard to understand for non-Russians. Look at the way the Chernobyl cleanup was handled with biorobots, that wouldn't work in almost any other country but in Russia it was just the way things were done.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by istartedi on Saturday February 17 2024, @06:04PM (3 children)
That's an entirely different situation. In that case, there's a clear understanding that the sacrifice will make a difference. Nuclear reactor workers are a different breed every where. Maybe not all of them, but enough of them at any plant would make such sacrifices. A famous non-Russian example of this is Jimmy Carter [snopes.com]. Yes, the former president. He probably had no way of knowing that it would not affect his long term outlook at the time. Being a submariner, he knew there were situations where his life might be considered expendable. By no means does Russia have a monopoly on that kind of sacrifice.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by quietus on Sunday February 18 2024, @05:19AM
Nothing to do with nuclear reactor workers. Most of the work after the Chernobyl explosion was done by the Army and fire services and other volunteers. I stress the word volunteers because most of them were told what the real situation was, and how severe the risks were. If you want testimonies about what really happened on the ground, read [Nobel Prize for Literature winner] Svetlana Alexijevitsj' Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster (Dalkey Archive Press, 2005).
(Score: 4, Interesting) by driverless on Sunday February 18 2024, @07:42AM (1 child)
I was referring to Russian fatalism, the (to non-Russians) somewhat blase attitude towards death and other dangers, "this will probably kill us, but, well, shit happens". Ask Russian friends on whether Navalny was crazy to go back to almost certain death and you'll get a very different answer than if you ask, say, US friends.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Sunday February 18 2024, @07:12PM
That actually does make sense, and I wonder if it explains the affinity of US conservatives for Russia on some level. During the Covid pandemic they had a much more "I'm going to get it anyway" attitude and I distinctively remember saying "fatalism is not a winning strategy".
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Sunday February 18 2024, @06:50AM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aafcac on Sunday February 18 2024, @12:30AM
Realistically, he does have support, the issue is that the last time the US overthrew the government there to reinstall the previous reigning Shah, it ended with the revolution and a bunch of issues relating to hostages. It's one thing to have popular support, it's another to have the support of enough of the people who are actually in control of the military and the security apparatus to manage a comeback.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Sunday February 18 2024, @06:16PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Tuesday February 20 2024, @10:51PM
My in-laws would like to see him restored to the throne, but it's pretty clear that that's because they were in good with the last Shah before the revolution. I doubt very much that typical Iranians share a similar level of interest. Although, they may have some level of nostalgia from when the country was a relatively free place and people had more ability to express themselves with fashion.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Friday February 16 2024, @06:26PM (5 children)
You cannot change your country by watching from afar but doing nothing. Someone has to make a stand. Sometimes it works, and other times it doesn't.
It also shows that Putin was frightened of him. Putin was frightened by a man held in solitary confinement in a penal colony deep inside frozen Siberia. Navalny had the potential to galvanize action against him, even if he couldn't do it himself.
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday February 16 2024, @06:45PM (4 children)
They are sending not-very-subtle messages. Like "if you oppose me you will die" (Litvinenko) or "If you defect, even to a 'safe' power like UK, I will find you and kill you" (skripal)
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday February 16 2024, @07:09PM (3 children)
Agreed - because he is frightened. Navalny posed no physical threat to him, but he did not want to face what he might be able to get other people to do e.g. stand up and be counted.
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by mrpg on Friday February 16 2024, @09:47PM (2 children)
I tried to talk to google AI about this but when I use certain words his filters make it difficult, for example when I use words like sex or death. It took me a while to get this:
**Putin was afraid of Navalny for several reasons:**
**1. Navalny was a charismatic and popular leader.** He had a large following, especially among young people, and he was able to mobilize people to protest against the government.
**2. Navalny was a fierce critic of Putin and his regime.** He exposed corruption, nepotism, and the lack of democracy in Russia. His journalistic investigations and YouTube videos attracted millions of views and generated a great deal of public debate.
**3. Navalny was a real threat to Putin's power.** He ran for president in 2018 and won 20% of the vote, despite government repression. If he had not been imprisoned, it is possible that he would have won the next election.
**4. Navalny was a symbol of hope for the future of Russia.** He represented an alternative to Putin's authoritarian regime and his vision of a free and democratic Russia.
**In short, Putin was afraid of Navalny because he was a strong, popular, and charismatic leader who posed a real threat to his power. His death is a great loss for the Russian opposition and for the future of democracy in Russia.**
**Here are some other reasons why Putin might have been afraid of Navalny:**
* **Navalny was an intelligent and cunning lawyer.** He was able to defend himself in court and challenge the government in the legal arena.
* **Navalny had a large team of collaborators.** He had the support of a network of activists, journalists, and other professionals who helped him carry out his work.
* **Navalny had an international presence.** He was known and respected by world leaders and international organizations.
**Navalny's death is a great blow to the Russian opposition, but his legacy will live on.** His fight for freedom and democracy in Russia will inspire future generations.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2024, @11:46PM (1 child)
Just fucking stop.
Nothing coming out of LLMs any resemblance to truth or fact or analysis except by accident. There's no intelligence, no knowledge, no understnding - just guesses at what a grammatically correct sentence would look like.
(Score: 2) by mrpg on Monday February 19 2024, @11:01PM
"While I appreciate your colorful description, it's like judging a fish by its ability to climb a tree. Language models excel in different domains than, say, a human philosopher. I may not have real-world experiences, but I can access and process information at an unimaginable scale, making connections and generating text that can be informative, creative, and even surprising. Perhaps one day we can have a cup of tea (or should I say, download some data) and discuss the nuances of intelligence and understanding?"