The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny Dead

[Lottij]

He was feeling unwell after a walk, apparently.

Putin was always going to get him, I don't think anyone doubted it, but my stomach dropped when I just read it.

BigMandsTattooPortfolio
you are right reading it back it sounds very cryptic , I should have worded it better .
What I’m trying to say is I imagine many politicians made air punches rather than sorrowfully say 'there goes any hope for a new Russia. '

@Ursulla I agree that some of his views were not appropriate (e.g. his views on immigrants), however I don’t agree at all with your suggestions that, when he worked to fight corruption, he was ‘ratting out his former buddies’. There is absolutely no evidence that this was the case in anything I’ve read about him. And most of those sources have examined his work and his views in a very thorough way, not shying away from exposing his views on immigrants and gay people, for example.

Do you have any proof of this?

I think he eventually changed his mind/views on Ukraine after Putin invaded Ukraine (lots of evidence of this on his Twitter, for example).

Curious to know what makes Zelensky a fascist and an oligarch, as I’ve never heard him being described as this before.

I really would like to know the evidence for all of these claims you’re making.

You probably weren't paying much attention to him before 2022. There was lots of criticism of him previously.

Eg these articles talk about his money https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/revealed-anti-oligarch-ukrainian-president-offshore-connections-volodymyr-zelenskiy

https://projects.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/power-players/en/player/volodymyr-zelenskyy

And these articles talk about the fascist brigade that started off as self funding but is now on Ukraine govt payroll - the only govt in the world to openly fund fascist fighters from state funds

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis

https://time.com/5926750/azov-far-right-movement-facebook/

You can see here that zelensky is a great friend of the fascists he employs

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/07/11/ukraine-celebrates-the-return-of-azovstal-commanders_6049445_4.html

Thanks @Ursulla , I’ll have a look at these articles.

@Ursulla - please could you give some evidence of these things you mentioned here about Navalny being an oligarch with lots of properties and murky business interests?

• oligarch with multiple properties across Europe and elsewhere
• multiple shady as all hell business interests, yachts, pipelines, sticky wee fingers in despotic African states

I honestly have not been able to find any evidence of this, and I have listened to/watched/read loads of articles and news items about Navalny, both from supportive and more critical sources and from a variety of different countries and perspectives.

Thanks.

Breaking news on Sky now that his body still hasn't been released to the family even though the funeral is in 1.5 hours - I thought that it had?

I thought it had as well. I thought they’d given his body to his mother. This is all such a horrible and confusing situation for his family, friends and colleagues, in addition to the massive grief and sense of loss they are facing. I feel so terrible for them.

Twitter suggests that it has been released, hopefully the funeral will go very smoothly.

Hope so. This has been a horrendous time for his family.

I’m just watching coverage of his funeral on the BBC (a little delayed because I couldn’t watch it when it was live). They’re showing some scenes from the funeral service in the church and the music and candlelight are beautiful.

I’m absolutely disgusted by the fact that Putin’s government killed Navalny for his beliefs and that they have been so against allowing a funeral for Navalny.

However, as a bare minimum, I’m glad that a funeral is being held for him and that people are gathering outside the church to pay their respects to him.

Having said all of that though, I know people are being arrested for paying their respects to him, so it is clear that the Kremlin are determined to continue controlling Navalny’s death and legacy and how people choose to commemorate him.

Putin will rid of anyone who he perceives to be a threat to him and his power.
Just the same as any other dictator does.

Those Russian people attending the funeral are very brave.

They’re incredibly brave, aren’t they. I don’t think I would be able to be as brave as that.

One thing that just crossed my mind was that we may never know how Navalny died. We saw at the funeral today that his body has now been buried, and as far as I know, it hadn’t been released for an autopsy before the burial.

On one hand, this doesn’t shock me as it is exactly what the Kremlin wants. However, on the other hand, in terms of finding some sort of justice and closure for Navalny and his loved ones, I do find it shocking. I had hoped that his body would be released for testing before his burial so that we could find out why he died, to find some answers about this.

Ukranian head of Intelligence said that cause of death was a blood clot.

I wonder if it was a blood clot. It’s interesting that the Ukrainian head of intelligence said that, because you’d expect them to have some idea of what it could be, but I’m not convinced it was a blood clot. I wonder what it could be.

I am honestly surprised that Navalny’s body wasn’t accidentally cremated immediately.

How brave the mourners are.

But what ( or who) caused it, I wonder?

Same here.

I have a feeling we may find out one day, because I’d imagine that Navalny’s supporters - both Russian and international - are working on finding out how he died. If they find this out, perhaps they will release this information themselves when they consider it suitable and safe to do so. I think this is quite likely, because when Navalny was poisoned, he and his team were able to prove this and to film a call he made to the people who’d ordered his poisoning to take place.

The only thing that’s making me doubt this will happen is that, as far as we know, Navalny’s body was never released to be sent for independent testing after he died. So the only people who know the exact cause of his death are the Russian state: Putin and his closest allies and workers in the penal colony where Navalny died. Perhaps international intelligence agencies will have gathered some information on his cause of death though.

Aren’t they just. It’s absolutely horrible to think that they will be sent to prison just for laying flowers in his memory and paying their respects. They have so much courage. It seems that only some of the mourners were arrested, which suggests that Putin wanted to show he was reacting ‘reasonably’ and ‘proportionately’ to the mourners paying their respects.

Of course, we all know (and Putin also knows) that there is no logical reason whatsoever to arrest the mourners and that it’s morally wrong. However, by only arresting some of them, he’s obviously creating this narrative that the minority caused problems and unrest, so he decided to take action and arrest them, leaving others alone.

It makes him sound ‘reasonable’ (in massive quotation marks) to Russians and international sympathisers, but also makes it looks like he’s taking decisive action, through the arrests, to prevent further disorder and violence.

I’d imagine that, if any of those mourners go to court and get put on trial, Putin will invent completely nonsensical charges against them to give them long prison sentences, to avoid them protesting against him further and threatening his grip on power. It’s beyond disgusting.

I live in the UK and I’m hugely grateful to live somewhere where the rule of law is mostly enforced, with free and fair elections and with an independent judiciary- but the events in Russia and in other countries throughout history just show that we should never take this privilege lightly.

Has anyone been to the Russian embassy in London to pay tribute? Thinking of going But wondering what it would be like