Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 16 submissions in the queue.
Politics
posted by janrinok on Friday February 16 2024, @04:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the some-battles-you-cannot-win dept.

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.


Original Submission

 
This discussion was created by janrinok (52) for logged-in users only, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday February 18 2024, @07:05AM (3 children)

    by Reziac (2489) on Sunday February 18 2024, @07:05AM (#1344996) Homepage

    Didn't look like a threat to me. If he was, why let him persist so long? Why let him generate bad press when he could have been quietly disappeared a long time ago??

    And I've been paying attention for a lot of years, and have not seen Putin "wax poetic" about Stalin. He is circumspect how he speaks of the USSR, as there is still a USSR-nostalgic faction that he needs to not offend. But he has said flat out that Russia must never return to that past. (He mentions in his autobiographical interview of ~2002 that as a KGB clerk in East Germany -- he was a lawyer, not a field agent -- he was shocked that the East Germans actually believed in Communism, which Moscow had given up as a bad job years before, despite still using the label.)

    Side note: Russia's latest award for meritorious public service is for LOCAL service, which is not exactly the soul of centralized planning.

    --
    And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Sunday February 18 2024, @04:17PM (2 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 18 2024, @04:17PM (#1345035) Journal

    Didn't look like a threat to me. If he was, why let him persist so long? Why let him generate bad press when he could have been quietly disappeared a long time ago??

    How could he be "quietly disappeared"? It wouldn't to be any quieter than this.

    And I've been paying attention for a lot of years, and have not seen Putin "wax poetic" about Stalin.

    Here's your opportunity to pay even more attention than you usually do. A typical example [reuters.com]:

    "If you say you are positive (about Stalin's rule), some will be discontented. If you say you are negative, others will grumble," Putin said during an annual marathon question-and- answer session with the Russian people.

    "It is impossible to make a general judgment. It is evident that, from 1924 to 1953, the country that Stalin ruled changed from an agrarian to an industrial society."

    Echoing millions of Russians, Putin praised Stalin's leading role in winning World War Two.

    "You know, if we return to the issue of human losses, noboby can now throw stones at those who organised and stood at the head of this victory, because if we'd lost this war, the consequences for our country would have been much more catastrophic."

    A new school textbook, compiled with the help of an historian from Putin's ruling United Russia party, mentions the repressions but also depicts Stalin as a talented manager.

    What happened to a historian [themoscowtimes.com] that was documenting Stalin's crimes:

    The Petrozavodsk city court in northwestern Russia’s republic of Karelia found Dmitriyev, 65, guilty of child pornography and sentenced him to 15 years in a penal colony.

    State prosecutors had requested a 15-year prison sentence for Dmitriyev, who is lauded for his work uncovering mass graves and identifying thousands of victims of Soviet repressions in Karelia.

    Dmitriyev’s lawyers told Interfax they plan to appeal the sentence within the legally mandated 10-day period.

    A court initially acquitted Dmitriyev of the charges — which his friends, colleagues and civil society insist are political retribution for his work — in 2018, only to have a second criminal case opened against him a few months later.

    And you even wrote:

    And I've been paying attention for a lot of years, and have not seen Putin "wax poetic" about Stalin. He is circumspect how he speaks of the USSR, as there is still a USSR-nostalgic faction that he needs to not offend. But he has said flat out that Russia must never return to that past. (He mentions in his autobiographical interview of ~2002 that as a KGB clerk in East Germany -- he was a lawyer, not a field agent -- he was shocked that the East Germans actually believed in Communism, which Moscow had given up as a bad job years before, despite still using the label.)

    Notice the key words "in ~2002". It's twenty years later and the times changed. You acknowledge that Putin is "circumspect" in his pandering to the Communists. But it's definitely has changed from when he was just starting to solidify power. We have Putin lauding Stalin and an inconvenient historian getting repeatedly tried for heinous crimes.

    As to Putin's assertions about what sort of jobs he did in the KGB or what East Germans allegedly believed, keep in mind that it was a tale for public consumption not truth. I doubt East Germans were any more committed to Communism than the Russians were, for a glaring example, but they had to drink the kool aid because they were the subordinates in that relationship. We also don't know how committed Putin was either, but he was a member of the Communist party through to 1991.

    • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday February 18 2024, @04:35PM (1 child)

      by Reziac (2489) on Sunday February 18 2024, @04:35PM (#1345037) Homepage

      Everyone who wanted a decent job was a member of the Communist party through 1991.

      And yes, from the Russian POV, Stalin led them to victory in the Great Patriotic War. Who exactly else would you point at??

      Also, from what you linked to:

      ===
      "The positives that undoubtedly existed were achieved at an unacceptable price. Repressions did take place. This is a fact. Millions of our fellow citizens suffered from them," Putin said.

      "Such a way of running a state, of achieving results is unacceptable, this is impossible. We have not only lived through the personality cult but also witnessed mass crimes against our own nation."
      ===

      Lauding? Seriously??

      --
      And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 18 2024, @06:06PM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 18 2024, @06:06PM (#1345053) Journal

        Everyone who wanted a decent job was a member of the Communist party through 1991.

        There wouldn't be a decent job in the KGB. In any case, I don't see the reason that Putin would move against an ally when he's in such an insecure situation. A firm political enemy would be different.

        And yes, from the Russian POV, Stalin led them to victory in the Great Patriotic War. Who exactly else would you point at??

        The Russians who actually fought that war. Even the US with lend-lease. Stalin just raised the body count and was more a German ally than foe.