5 Filters

Is Navalny for real, or what..?

#1

I don’t have much more than a provisional view on this, and must head over to MoonOfAlabama which very likely has some meat for my sandwich, but am very cynical about the “protests” in support of this individual who has been sentenced to gulag if breaking news is to be believed.

Initial thoughts:

  • The whole Novichok victim narrative sounds as implausible as all the other Novichok victim narratives

  • Navalny sounds like a cutout from the same set of plans as Jean Guaido (Popular Will, natch)

  • If he is in any way credible his ultra-nationalist stance looks much like that of Zhirinovsky but with a pro-West twist

I’m very open to more informed perspectives but please: no links to Pussy Riot choons.

1 Like
#2

I’m 100% with you, @Kieran_Telo. The whole thing seems like a nonsensical publicity stunt, sponsored by the same team that brought you Novichocks! The Musical!.

A little known politician with an underwhelming following survives an attempted “poisoning”, only to go back to Russia and promptly get thrown in jail. Why didn’t they wait until he was thrown in jail before attempting to poison him? Will they have another go now, or is it the case that they get their one shot at you, and if you survive, you survive for good?

The whole business feels laughable really… I, like you, am very open to any actual hard evidence that surfaces on this whole business.

hahaha! Nice one :slight_smile:

#3

Saker and Dmitry Orlov offer realistic-feeling enlightenment on this; both native Russian-speaking Russians, and also entirely fluent in English. In addition, Dmitry is now at last permanently back in Russia, and getting the - strikingly-different - Russian perspective on Western russophobic shenanigans, from that end.

Search Saker’s recent commentaries on the Navalny bollocks at ‘Vineyard of the Saler’. Dmitry, I’m afraid, can only be accessed in full via his subscriber list.

In a nutshell, they point out that Navalny is barely taken seriously by the bulk of Russians, and regularly pulls about a 2-4 percent supporter bloc in opinion polls and elections. And he is, from the contemptuous viewpoint of the average Russian, a comprador traitor for Western thug-interests. Most punters there also seem to regard the ‘novichok’ rubbish as a ridiculous joke.

Here are a couple of excerpts from Dmitry’s recent mailout on the subject, in a post titled: ‘How American Propaganda helps Russian Propaganda’:

“Reading or watching the news in the US (American propaganda, that is) you might conjecture that “leading Russian opposition candidate Alexei Navalny” is a prisoner of conscience while in fact “convicted felon and foreign intelligence service asset Alexei Navalny” was arrested for violating the terms of his parole simultaneously for two criminal convictions for embezzling and fraud. Was he entrapped, perhaps, or a victim of circumstance?”

And -

"Finally, Navalny offers a passive victory for Russian propaganda. The Americans think that, thanks to Navalny, they are holding 4 aces and a joker (Navalny being the joker) whereas their real hand is a worthless no pair. There is but one danger lurking in all this: once the Americans realize that Navalny is worthless to them but valuable to Russia, they may try to kill him (for real this time). Therefore, the safest place to keep him is in a Russian jail. Luckily, the number of crimes he has committed makes it perfectly legitimate to do so. If all goes well for him, he will persist in permanent limbo, serving as a cautionary tale to all such felonious foreign-paid “leading opposition candidates.” "

1 Like
#4

What better answer than this -

Navalny’s partner Ashurov, featured prominently commenting on his case, is an MI6 and IfS asset! From 2012.

2 Likes