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Of course neither Putin nor the Russian government had any motive to kill Navalnyii. Doesn’t matter, they will be blamed, no evidence needed, just as anyone who points out, for example, the manifold absurdities of the official story concerning Jeffrey Epstein’s death will be branded a loon.
Of course, Navalnyii was no saint, to put it mildly. Doesn’t matter, those who control the narrative are the ones who decide, and making Navalnyii a saint happens to suit their purposes at the moment.
Given Navalny's character it is possible that he made enemies in prison.
Alive Navalny was an asset for the Kremlin. He was a living exhibit of the kind of mischief that the US would foist on Russia...a latter-day False Dmitry. Frankly, the cynicism, audacity and bad faith surrounding the man are demoralising to contemplate.
Of course those who decide the narrative are acting in bad faith, or rather, they are indifferent to questions of good or bad faith, only to what happens to be useful at the present time.
As far as I can tell, very little effort was put into construsting a semblance of truth-telling on the part of the West. Putin was simply accused before anyone could have had any evidence to show. This is giving a lot away. to one's opponents. There is often a stage in the career of a compulsive liiar when they give up and let it all hang out, Going by the individuals I have observed, it seems to indicate that some kind of breakdown is at hand.
I suspect something else, namely that the National Security State's control is so total that they don't need to try very hard, any more than any special effort was needed to blame Emmanuel Goldstein at today's Two Minutes Hate.
That might be a significant point, after which other things will develop. Humans are ingenious. Like having ants in your yard or roaches in your kitchen.
I understand turning a man into a symbol based on who they were but this feels like a symbol is being forced into the shape of a man. The fact that almost no one is even talking about who Navalny was as a man does not help my suspicion.
I do, and wrote into my FB feed about him, within my larger comment, on Alexei the day Navalny died. Hey: Some of us are dumb enough, or bored enough, or supercilious enough to actually study Russian/Ukrainian/Baltician (sic) minutiae. But I lack intelligence, so I honestly can't unmix the mess of mess-mixed sarcasm vs fact that is your piece of Saint Alexei here. Maybe more clearly separating the one from the other will help us not only read you more clearly, but get us to bite the Paid Version hook that your otherwise quality craft dangles before us at Lake Substack.
I wrote a lengthy series on Colour Revolutions and Regime Change last year that coves quite a bit of what you've requested here. It's full of information on people like Navalny, who they were, who paid them to operate as they did, who trained them, who directed them, and to what ends,
I also did a book club very early on in this Substack regarding 1990's Russia and the s**tshow that it was. You may want to check that out as well. There will be more on this subject and those around it in the near future, as the conflict between Russia and the USA isn't going away anytime soon.
This is a great answer. Very useful. Eager to check all this out. Allow me, though, to reengage you if I prove too dumb to find what you're referencing. Wish I was kidding. I'm pure Short Bus when it comes to locating anything without directions. But again, thanks much.
With the Ascension of Saint Alexei, Hercules and Comrade Ogilvie will be relegated to the dustbin of history. How can anyone compete with such magnificence?
I have trouble believing that the Western intelligence agencies seriously imagined that they could establish Navalny as another Yeltsin. Are they really that dumb? Or that consumed with contempt for Russia that they imagine Russians would fall for him?
Navalny's real significance lied in his use for narrative management within the West. As the West faces catastrophic failure in Ukraine it is retreating into a cocoon of fantasy. Foreign policy is less about achieving concrete ends overseas than it is about manipulating perceptions at home. I fully expect that Navalny's widow will make anti-Trump statements as required in the months ahead.
Navalny was more about managing western perceptions, as you yourself mention.. When you read western media regarding Russia's political environment, you're left with the impression that this tiny cohort of pro-western liberals are the main opposition to the government, when the fact of the matter is that the strongest faction is to Putin's right.
I thought that the main opposition was from the Communists, but I don't follow Russian politics. The hard-core nationalists are definitely a serious threat to the Kremlin.
Russia's liberals are dreadful. As a kid I hero-worshipped the Soviet dissident liberals like Sakharov, though as a teenager I became aware of the shortcomings of this crowd after reading Edward Limonov who correctly predicted in the 70s that liberals would wreck Russia if they ever got the chance. Today I look back on all that with very mixed feelings. I still revere Sakharov's memory, not because he believed in human rights or any liberal b.s. but for his contempt for power and his courage.
Oh God I hadnt even thought of them dragging the widow out to slay Trump all election season on TV, I wonder if she will have a dance number with Jon Stewart or John Oliver, I can almost see Whoopi Goldbergs face as she explains how Trump tried to pick her up at a fund raiser while her husband was in a Siberian prison..
"I have trouble believing that the Western intelligence agencies seriously imagined that they could establish Navalny as another Yeltsin. Are they really that dumb? Or that consumed with contempt for Russia that they imagine Russians would fall for him?"
Remember Ghani, Karzai or Chalabi? At one time, each of them was held up as Julius Caesar, Solomon, Solon, George Washington and Jesus Christ, all rolled into one.
it really is hilarious that mentally impaired partisans genuinely believe that an obvious glowjig beholden to a foreign power should be allowed to run Russia
"It's not fair that an agent of western intelligence services tasked with overthrowing his own government and destabilizing his own country for the benefit of foreign states dies in a Russian prison. It's just not fair."
What an inspiring hagiography, I enjoyed this old style so thank you. Speedy path to sainthood yet to be embellished with priestly recitals from the beer garden party. Did Lenin come from Switzerland to stir a revolution?
He was in exile in Switzerland at the same time that Mussolini was lounging about there. 1910s Switzerland, especially Zurich, saw quite A LOT of foreign exiles of the Marxist bent from all over Europe, plotting revolution.
Do read “Thunder at Twilight” about 1913-1914 Vienna - Frederic Morton.
They were all there- Trotsky, Stalin, Hitler , Freud, and an even more bizarre cast at the Hofburg soap opera of the Hapsburgs at the end. Only exceeded by the Romanovs.
I did not know of the existence of this play! I need to see it.
aw, Niccolo's a good man.
Hit the like button at the top or bottom of this page to like this entry. Use the share and/or re-stack buttons to share this across social media. Leave a comment if the mood strikes you to do so.
And don't forge to subscribe if you haven't done so already.
Of course neither Putin nor the Russian government had any motive to kill Navalnyii. Doesn’t matter, they will be blamed, no evidence needed, just as anyone who points out, for example, the manifold absurdities of the official story concerning Jeffrey Epstein’s death will be branded a loon.
Of course, Navalnyii was no saint, to put it mildly. Doesn’t matter, those who control the narrative are the ones who decide, and making Navalnyii a saint happens to suit their purposes at the moment.
Given Navalny's character it is possible that he made enemies in prison.
Alive Navalny was an asset for the Kremlin. He was a living exhibit of the kind of mischief that the US would foist on Russia...a latter-day False Dmitry. Frankly, the cynicism, audacity and bad faith surrounding the man are demoralising to contemplate.
Of course those who decide the narrative are acting in bad faith, or rather, they are indifferent to questions of good or bad faith, only to what happens to be useful at the present time.
Useful to themselves and themselves alone.
As far as I can tell, very little effort was put into construsting a semblance of truth-telling on the part of the West. Putin was simply accused before anyone could have had any evidence to show. This is giving a lot away. to one's opponents. There is often a stage in the career of a compulsive liiar when they give up and let it all hang out, Going by the individuals I have observed, it seems to indicate that some kind of breakdown is at hand.
I suspect something else, namely that the National Security State's control is so total that they don't need to try very hard, any more than any special effort was needed to blame Emmanuel Goldstein at today's Two Minutes Hate.
That might be a significant point, after which other things will develop. Humans are ingenious. Like having ants in your yard or roaches in your kitchen.
This level of sarcasm is achievable only by those who need it to be true.
I understand turning a man into a symbol based on who they were but this feels like a symbol is being forced into the shape of a man. The fact that almost no one is even talking about who Navalny was as a man does not help my suspicion.
Here's a question: who remembers Boris Nemtsov?
I do, and wrote into my FB feed about him, within my larger comment, on Alexei the day Navalny died. Hey: Some of us are dumb enough, or bored enough, or supercilious enough to actually study Russian/Ukrainian/Baltician (sic) minutiae. But I lack intelligence, so I honestly can't unmix the mess of mess-mixed sarcasm vs fact that is your piece of Saint Alexei here. Maybe more clearly separating the one from the other will help us not only read you more clearly, but get us to bite the Paid Version hook that your otherwise quality craft dangles before us at Lake Substack.
I wrote a lengthy series on Colour Revolutions and Regime Change last year that coves quite a bit of what you've requested here. It's full of information on people like Navalny, who they were, who paid them to operate as they did, who trained them, who directed them, and to what ends,
I also did a book club very early on in this Substack regarding 1990's Russia and the s**tshow that it was. You may want to check that out as well. There will be more on this subject and those around it in the near future, as the conflict between Russia and the USA isn't going away anytime soon.
This is a great answer. Very useful. Eager to check all this out. Allow me, though, to reengage you if I prove too dumb to find what you're referencing. Wish I was kidding. I'm pure Short Bus when it comes to locating anything without directions. But again, thanks much.
I am dumb too. Feel free to ask any questions and do use the tabs at the top of this page to see the various sections on this Substack.
admit it, you're using a phone. a kiddie computer. an information stovepipe.
I plead Guilty, and perp-walk honorably toward my Info-death row cell.
With the Ascension of Saint Alexei, Hercules and Comrade Ogilvie will be relegated to the dustbin of history. How can anyone compete with such magnificence?
I love this so much
Glad you enjoyed it. It didn't take all that much effort to put together.
Good. Effort is GHEY
I have trouble believing that the Western intelligence agencies seriously imagined that they could establish Navalny as another Yeltsin. Are they really that dumb? Or that consumed with contempt for Russia that they imagine Russians would fall for him?
Navalny's real significance lied in his use for narrative management within the West. As the West faces catastrophic failure in Ukraine it is retreating into a cocoon of fantasy. Foreign policy is less about achieving concrete ends overseas than it is about manipulating perceptions at home. I fully expect that Navalny's widow will make anti-Trump statements as required in the months ahead.
Navalny was more about managing western perceptions, as you yourself mention.. When you read western media regarding Russia's political environment, you're left with the impression that this tiny cohort of pro-western liberals are the main opposition to the government, when the fact of the matter is that the strongest faction is to Putin's right.
I thought that the main opposition was from the Communists, but I don't follow Russian politics. The hard-core nationalists are definitely a serious threat to the Kremlin.
Russia's liberals are dreadful. As a kid I hero-worshipped the Soviet dissident liberals like Sakharov, though as a teenager I became aware of the shortcomings of this crowd after reading Edward Limonov who correctly predicted in the 70s that liberals would wreck Russia if they ever got the chance. Today I look back on all that with very mixed feelings. I still revere Sakharov's memory, not because he believed in human rights or any liberal b.s. but for his contempt for power and his courage.
Oh God I hadnt even thought of them dragging the widow out to slay Trump all election season on TV, I wonder if she will have a dance number with Jon Stewart or John Oliver, I can almost see Whoopi Goldbergs face as she explains how Trump tried to pick her up at a fund raiser while her husband was in a Siberian prison..
You people are actual ghouls. It is no wonder the right is so devoid of people with brains.
Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, etc. etc. etc. You do not get to call other people "ghouls".
Yes, I condone neo-conservative idiocy because I think shitting on a recently widowed woman is pathetic and disgusting, obviously. You sure got me!
Cool. Enjoy the rest of your evening, Michel.
A follower of Marx calling us ghouls, the absolute state of it..
I am not a follower of Marx, nor do I sympathize with most left wing thought.
"I have trouble believing that the Western intelligence agencies seriously imagined that they could establish Navalny as another Yeltsin. Are they really that dumb? Or that consumed with contempt for Russia that they imagine Russians would fall for him?"
Remember Ghani, Karzai or Chalabi? At one time, each of them was held up as Julius Caesar, Solomon, Solon, George Washington and Jesus Christ, all rolled into one.
She already did
https://www.businessinsider.com/navalny-death-letters-trump-second-term-agenda-really-scary-2024-2
You can safely bet your shirt on self-interest...it comes first every time.
Gimme yer shirt then
Its Australia you don’t need one
Out here is different
It’s cold
Never let it be said that shitlibs are not religious.
it really is hilarious that mentally impaired partisans genuinely believe that an obvious glowjig beholden to a foreign power should be allowed to run Russia
I made this comment elsewhere:
"It's not fair that an agent of western intelligence services tasked with overthrowing his own government and destabilizing his own country for the benefit of foreign states dies in a Russian prison. It's just not fair."
and because of this manifest unfairness Putin is going to invade Poland just like Stal — I mean, HITLER
What an inspiring hagiography, I enjoyed this old style so thank you. Speedy path to sainthood yet to be embellished with priestly recitals from the beer garden party. Did Lenin come from Switzerland to stir a revolution?
He was in exile in Switzerland at the same time that Mussolini was lounging about there. 1910s Switzerland, especially Zurich, saw quite A LOT of foreign exiles of the Marxist bent from all over Europe, plotting revolution.
Do read “Thunder at Twilight” about 1913-1914 Vienna - Frederic Morton.
They were all there- Trotsky, Stalin, Hitler , Freud, and an even more bizarre cast at the Hofburg soap opera of the Hapsburgs at the end. Only exceeded by the Romanovs.
I will not eat a single morsel of food until Alexei Navalny is dead and buried!
A wonderful, inspiring, literary masterpiece. Greetings from Belgrade
Lijep pozdrav iz Splita
“Mikhail Shishkin is fighting for democracy in Russia on the frontline in Switzerland”
Gold
When the "intelligentsia" seeks to define who are the angels and who are the devils for you,
4 dimensional shredding is a refreshing thing to see.
A friendly suggestion: Stick with what you're good at, reporting and analyzing. You suck at satire.
I appreciate the criticism and honesty!
But that satire was THE BEST EVER!!!
What satire? Isn’t that all true? I’m an American, I wouldn’t know.