As a new wave of protests is picking up in Russia, Western journalists have already started writing silly, uninformed things about what is going on. So I want to explain what is happening to those of my readers who want the facts and not the silly hype.
Navalny is a blogger who became famous as a result of conducting detailed and very productive investigations into the impossible corruption taking place in his country. He has done especially valuable work in uncovering evidence of corruption in Russia’s immense oil and gas industry. In this sense, Navalny is a Russian Assange of sorts who has brought to light really shocking instances of Russia’s political leaders robbing their own citizens blind.
As a result of his blogging, Navalny developed a huge following, especially among the younger generation of Internet users. However, Navalny’s greatest admirers and supporters are Russia’s neo-Nazis. The very blond and very Slavic Navalny has become their greatest hope of rising to power in the country. The neo-Nazis detest Putin and see him as a traitor to the cause of creating a state dominated completely by Russians.
A while ago, photos surfaced of Navalny marching with the neo-Nazis and raising his arm in a Heil salute.
“I was just walking by and stopped to see what was going on,” the blogger explained when questioned about his connection to the Nazis. “The sun was shining too brightly, so I raised my arm to protect my eyes from the glare.”
Later, however, he was forced to acknowledge that he had been a regular participant in neo-Nazi marches and said he was doing it to make sure there was at least one decent person there.
Another endearing characteristic of Navalny is that he is into the “stand your ground” type of behavior in a way that makes Zimmerman look like a tree-hugging peacenik of the century. Once, during a political debate held in a night-club (yeah, Russians are like that, whatever), Navalny took offense to somebody saying something to somebody else, whipped out a gun, and started shooting at the talkative stranger. Remember the riddle about the bandit wars where I asked why the music was always turned up to an unbearable volume in the FSU countries in the 1990s? It was precisely to avoid this kind of situations where bandits would overhear (or believe they overheard) something somebody said to somebody else, take offense, and shoot up the room. Apparently, the bandit war mentality is still very relevant for Navalny.
Recently, Navalny announced he was going to run for Mayor of Moscow, a position of immense power in Russia. Since all of the head offices of major companies and governmental institutions are located in Moscow, the Mayor can exercise an enormous control over them (“Don’t do what I say? Prepare to be evicted / lose your water license / your fire department approval, etc.”). Navalny has a crowd of young, energetic supporters who are willing to do anything to make sure he wins. If he does – and even if he doesn’t – this election is obviously a trial run for Navalny’s future bid for President of Russia.
Putin became understandably threatened by this young and promising candidate and decided to put him in jail. According to new legislation, a conviction would disqualify Navalny from running in the future elections. Navalny was accused of corruption (pretty hilarious considering how he rose to fame) and sentenced to five years in jail. It’s impossible to say if he is guilty of anything but it is very telling that none of the people whose really massive crimes he uncovered and publicized on his blog have been punished for their corruption.
When the sentence was announced, people got angry and took to the streets. In the meanwhile, it was announced that Navalny would not go to jail for the moment but instead would be RORed, even though his conviction was not overturned. This is probably in no way related to the protests but the protests are going on.
This situation is very much in keeping with the famous saying that has defined the history of Russia as a struggle between ignorance and injustice. On the one hand, Putin is horrible and it’s great that there has appeared at least a remote possibility of an alternative candidate. Until now, there hasn’t been anybody who could play that role. However, the hope of displacing Putin that Navalny offers comes at a price of a radicalized, Nazified Russia. With all his numerous and major faults, Putin is keeping the neo-Nazis from power. Whether Navalny will ever be able to shake his Nazi connections remains a big question.
Clarissa's Blog 
As a Jew, I would prefer Putin. Better to be poor than poor and afraid to walk on the streets, when neo-Nazi thugs feel they have all the power (whether it’s true or not).
“ignorance and injustice” – Putin = injustice, Navalny = ignorance? Wouldn’t define neo-Nazi connections as ignorance.
On another topic, in “George Zimmerman Is Not Unique” AM blogged about Michael David Dunn killing a black unarmed teen. If you don’t know the details, they are worth reading. Turns out there is a third similar case:
After less than an hour of deliberation, a jury Wednesday found Spooner, 76, guilty of first-degree intentional homicide for fatally shooting Darius Simmons, his 13-year-old neighbor.
In court recess after the announcement of the verdict, Simmons’ mother, Patricia Larry, embraced friends who have watched the proceedings with her all week from the front row of the courtroom gallery. Larry testified Tuesday that she watched from her front porch as Spooner shot her son, saying she held Simmons in her arms moments later as he bled to death from a wound to the chest.
Spooner confessed on the scene to shooting Simmons on May 31, 2012. The defendant, who is white, said the teenager had stolen four of his guns, and that he had “reached a breaking point” when Simmons, who is black, did not fess up to the burglary.
AM notes that “Like Zimmerman, Spooner has a violent history that, in a smarter country, would have meant he had no access to legal guns.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/19/george-zimmerman-is-not-unique/
LikeLike
They never fess up to all their crimes, do they? That is because the “crimes” exist in the mind of the attacker and are probably those he has committed himself. How is the victim supposed to even know what all of the “crimes” are, so that he can confess to them?
LikeLike
I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of gushy, uninformed articles about Navalny in Western media of the “feminist Pussy Riot” variety. I just hope people try to get informed before they begin to fit Russian reality into an American mold.
LikeLike
To be honest, for Americans this Russian reality must be extremely hard to understand. Who would imagine a neo-Nazi Assange, who *loves* to shoot people, instead of a liberal, feminist, “people of all nations, unite!” guy? I also would never have imagined that before reading your post.
Interesting how well WW2 is studied in US schools. Weren’t future Italian and German dictators also talking about corruption of the ruling powers (rightly?) ?
LikeLike
Yes, of course, it’s a different culture, it’s hard to understand. It’s a good thing I’m here to inform people. 🙂 At least, those who want to know what is really going on and are capable of processing more complex ideas than those suggested by cowboy flicks.
“Interesting how well WW2 is studied in US schools. ”
– Every year I shock several students by telling him Hitler is dead. “Oh, really? When did that happen?” they ask me. I shock even more students by telling them that the Nazi Germany and the USSR were not fighting on the same side in the war. They even argue with me about this sometimes. Does this answer your question? 🙂
LikeLike
““ignorance and injustice” – Putin = injustice, Navalny = ignorance? Wouldn’t define neo-Nazi connections as ignorance.”
– The ignorance of people who celebrate Navalny and ignore who he is.
LikeLike
Btw, are you constantly following Russian news or with your knowledge of Russian can find the needed info, when the need arises?
LikeLike
Yes, I follow several blogs, including Navalny’s blog and a leading neo-Nazi blog. It’s best to be informed than to be caught by surprise. Neo-Nazism is a growing force in Russia.
LikeLike
Except those two, can you recommend a good news site or a blog? The name of this leading neo-Nazi blog (without a link, so that not to give them traffic or bring them here) ?
LikeLike
I don’t really do news sites, especially in Russia where they really can’t be trusted. I find that reading a collection of personal blogs gives a much more realistic picture of what is happening, especially when you look at things from very different perspectives.
The neo-Nazi I follow is called егор просвирнин. It’s tragic that such a talented guy -which he definitely is – didn’t find a place for himself in the society where he lives and had to turn to Nazism. 😦 😦
LikeLike
HITLER has only got one ball.
LikeLike
What do you mean?
LikeLike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM7pJGusyJg
LikeLike
After Hitler came to power, it was rumored that he had lost a testicle in World War One due to battlefield injuries. Later during World War Two, the satirical song “Hitler Has Only Got One Ball” was released in Britain to boost British morale. After WWII ended, the Soviets claimed that an autopsy on Hitler’s remains confirmed this. Some historians has dismissed the Soviet claim as propaganda.
At this point in time, no one knows for certain whether the claim or true, or simply an urban myth.
LikeLike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM7pJGusyJg
LikeLike
As recently as the nineties, schoolkids still sang that song in the playground.
LikeLike
In British type cultures….
LikeLike
// I find that reading a collection of personal blogs gives a much more realistic picture of what is happening, especially when you look at things from very different perspectives.
Are there any good Western in spirit, rather than neo-Nazi, blogs? Something you could recommend, in general? It’s a pity one can’t check the list of blogs easily here, unlike Friends list in LJ.
LikeLike
// – Every year I shock several students by telling him Hitler is dead. “Oh, really? When did that happen?” they ask me.
How many of those students were homeschooled, though?
LikeLike
“How many of those students were homeschooled, though?”
– I have no way of knowing this, obviously. But I can tell you that in a graduate course in the History Department at Yale – where every student but me was doing a PhD in European history – I was the only person who knew who fought whom and why in WWI. We didn’t get to WWII in that course, but still, WWI is pretty major for a historian of XXth century Europe. I was absolutely floored in that class.
“Welcome to America,” the professor told me when he saw my stunned reaction.
LikeLike
Well, if Hitler were alive, he’d only be 124 years old…a bit beyond “middle-aged.”
LikeLike
I have a hard time imagining the country that suffered the siege of Leningrad welcoming some guy with a Heil Hitler salute.
LikeLike
I know!!! This is the most tragic part. And the efforts that these young bro-nazis make to convince themselves that Hitler was a good guy who never hated Slavs are very convoluted and extreme.
LikeLike
So is Putin something like J. B. Tito (or S. Hussein, for that matter), a “strongman” whose “strength” is at least partially invested in “holding the lid down” on a potentially explosive society? What happens if/when Putin dies?
LikeLike
When Putin can’t serve his purpose any longer, the same forces that initially put this completely unknown, hapless little KGB official in power would put another figurehead in his place.
LikeLike
LINK 1
President Obama addresses the Trayvon Martin case
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/19/read-and-watch-president-obama-addresses-the-trayvon-martin-case/
LINK 2
On Thursday, three Texas Republicans filed a measure that would criminalize abortion services after a fetal heartbeat can be detected — which typically occurs around six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they’re pregnant.
The Texas legislature is currently in the midst of a special session that was convened specifically to give lawmakers more time to consider abortion restrictions. The session will end on July 31. Until then, GOP lawmakers have been busy proposing a slew of anti-abortion bills in the hopes of being able to rush them through.
…
In addition to criminalizing the vast majority of abortions, they also mandate invasive ultrasound procedures for women seeking abortions. In order to detect a fetal heartbeat so early in a pregnancy, doctors typically have to use a transvaginal probe.
Earlier this year, North Dakota became the first state to pass a six-week heartbeat ban. It currently represents the most stringent abortion ban the country has seen since Roe v. Wade first legalized the procedure, and it’s being challenged in court for overstepping Roe.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/07/18/2326191/texas-heartbeat-bill/?mobile=nc
LikeLike
LINK 3
‘Doing the Best I Can’: Fatherhood in the Inner City
It’s hard to find a more despised group than inner-city fathers who sire children they cannot — or will not — support.
A decade ago, I was involved in interventions that sought to improve nonresident fathers’ ties with their children.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/01/doing-the-best-i-can-fatherhood-in-the-inner-city/
LikeLike
// Whether Navalny will ever be able to shake his Nazi connections remains a big question.
Who would support him instead? Liberal Russians may not vote for him because of neo-Nazism, many not Liberal ones are Putin’s supporters, some may believe he’s corrupted too which is possible, judging by his behavior. What would his base be, if not radical nationalists?
Do you believe under him corruption would become much smaller?
LikeLike
For now, not a single ultra-Liberal has been put off by the Nazi connection. Even the ones who like Akunin are from ethnic groups that are under threat from the Nazis. Akunin made a long very positive interview with Navalny last year.
The hatred of Putin is such that every Liberal journalist has been falling over in a rush to explain away Navalny’s Nazi connections. His problem for now is that only a minority in the country knows about him. He is a blogger in a country where most voters have never seen the Internet, and Putin prevents him from going on TV.
As for corruption, I don’t believe the president causes it. People are corrupt on a very basic everyday level.
LikeLike
Why hate Putin if he doesn’t cause corruption? If it will be anyway, why not Putin? From your point of view. I suppose the Liberal journalists blame Putin for poverty, corruption, etc.
Akunin and others like him would benefit from a slight (don’t wish death on them) acquaintance with Navalny’s biggest fans.
LikeLike
Nobody likes to accept their own implication in corruption. It’s easier to fantasize that Putin will go away and everything will magically repair itself. It’s the same old fantasy of a good tsar.
Of course, a president matters. But he alone does not define absolutely everything.
LikeLike
Who is he indeed? Owner of several companies, minor shareholder of some blue chips companies, blogger writing about corruption (which he should have stick to, it could have make him not bad journalist, but he craves power, you know), he is also long therm neo-nazi who was evicted from Yabloko for supporting Russian neo nazis in 2006. He uses populist slogans such as “Russia for Russians” to gather around himself young and highly superficial and ignorant neo nazis ; he is known as intolerant to any minority no matter racial, religious, national (in 2011 in one of his interviews he proposed to separate North Caucasus from Russia, because he said “it is not part of Russia”. Well poor lad, probably has never read a single history book of its own country; could have at least use wikipedia, he will find then that NC has been a part of Russia for centures! He also suggested Russian citizens, who live in NC has to be limited in their access out of NC region. He proposed that the special border has to be build up between NC region and the rest of Russia, which would allow him to organize security check of people and cars driving from NC region ). It is clear for me that poor chap has lack of knowledge in such essential things as human rights, Russian constitutions and history. Along with his neo nazi views it makes him the last candidate I would ever vote in my life. He is only famous because people are tired of Putin, and he takes every advantage trying to show he is different from Putin.Well, for once I will agree with him , he is different . Because unlike him Putin reads book, and know his country’s history. Our country’s history.
Some P.S.
The other day in twitter I saw a paradox post from Stephen Fry, supporting Navalny. I was really shocked . Dear Mr.Fry whom I like very much dislikes Putin so much, that he is ready to support anyone who makes the smalest reverance towards LGTB. I am talking about latest Navalny’s attempt to gain cheap last minute popularity before elections when he criticising LGTB propaganda law (I found that law utterly unproffesional and ignorant, though). Oh, Mr. Fry I am not sure you will like neo nazi Navalny when he reaches what he craves.
LikeLike
Who is he indeed? Owner of several companies, minor shareholder of some blue chips companies, blogger writing about corruption (which he should have stick to, it could have make him not bad journalist, but he craves power, you know), he is also long therm neo-nazi who was evicted from Yabloko for supporting Russian neo nazis in 2006. He uses populist slogans such as “Russia for Russians” to gather around himself young and highly superficial and ignorant neo nazis ; he is known as intolerant to any minority no matter racial, religious, national (in 2011 in one of his interviews he proposed to separate North Caucasus from Russia, because he said “it is not part of Russia”. Well poor lad, probably has never read a single history book of the country he wants to rule ; should have used wikipedia at least , he will know then that North Caucasus is part of Russia, has been for centures! He also suggested Russian citizens, who live in NC (North Caucasus) has to be limited in their access out of NC region. He proposed that the special border has to be build up between NC region and the rest of Russia, which would allow him to organize security check of people and cars driving from NC region!!! To check people he wants to lead and represent , Russian citizens ). It is clear for me that poor chap has lack of knowledge in such essential things as human rights, Russian Constitution , sociology and history. Along with his neo nazi views it makes him the last posible candidate I would ever vote in my life. He is only famous because people are tired of Putin, and he takes every advantage trying to show he is different from Putin. Well, for once agree with him , he is different . Because unlike him Putin reads book, and know his country’s history. Our country’s history.
Some P.S.
The other day in twitter I saw a paradox post from Stephen Fry, supporting Navalny. I was really shocked. Dear Mr.Fry (whom I like very much, by tge way), he is gay and jew, as he represents himself. But he dislikes Putin so much, that he is ready to support anyone who makes the smalest reverance towards LGTB (Navalny criticised much talked about LGTB propaganda law). Really, Mr. Fry, this law is utterly ridiculous and unprofessional, but please, do invest some time learning more about people you support, for I am sure you will not like neo nazi Navalny when he reaches what he craves.
LikeLike
Who is Evgeny Roizman? Seems to be war on drugs, on steroids.
LikeLike
Yes, he is notorious for creating a series of “clinics” where drug addicts were kept against their will and tortured in very inventive ways. This was supposed to cure their addiction. Horrible things were done to those addicts. They were kept in chains, in subhuman conditions. But there is so much anger and hatred of addicts and alcoholics that Roizman became a folk hero of sorts.
LikeLike