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“Libertas perfundet onmia luce”
Translation - “Freedom will flood all things with light”
Recently Alexei Navalny who is the opposition leader in Russia is in news dominantly after returning to Russia from Germany. Previously in Germany, it was insinuated that he was poisoned by the Russian authority. On return to Russia, he has been detained and due to his detainment, protests have erupted over the country.
One of the most pro-government news anchors “Dmitry Kiselyov” compared Alexie returned with the “Lenin” return. So the question is in this euphoria; will Alexei Navalny be the ‘regime changer’ in Russia?
Who Alexie Navalny is!!
He is the political opposition leader of Russia's current leader and has been fighting against the current government from the beginning of the 21st century. His long protest started the same year Vladimir Putin took oath as President of Russia. He is predominantly an anti-corruption activist.
In the last couple of years, Navalny has been in the news. He was in the spotlight during the elections of 2018 when he announced his intentions to run against the current President of Russia Vladimir Putin; however, he was debarred to do so. He had highlighted a good number of scandals against the current government. He was also in the news for accusing Vladimir Putin and the Ex-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of many corruptions they were apparently party to, through his blogs. His statements and announcements on the flaws of the president and the government went aggressively viral and made an impact strongly in and around Moscow.
Navalny is an anti-corruption activist. In 2010 he started financial activism. He invested huge amounts of money into 5 different oil and gas company shares in order to be an activist shareholder by which he could ask for the company’s financial details.
Having acquired the fact that Oil & gas Companies are merely controlled by the Government in Russia, Navalny took this step to expose the corruption that was happening under wraps.
He chose to do this as it seemed to be the best possible way to doom the government and the authorities.
In 2010, he published one of the most confidential documents about Transneft’s auditing that incriminated corruption of around $4 billion!
In the following year of 2011, he published another paper on a real estate deal between the Hungarian and Russian governments. Again, in the year 2012, he accused Russia’s deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov of corruption. In 2017, post rigorous investigations; he published a new article called “He Is Not Dimon to You” accusing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of corruption.
On 19th January 2021 exactly two days after the arrest of Alexie, “A palace for Putin: The story of the biggest bribe in the entire world” was published accusing President Vladimir Putin of using fraudulent means to obtain a huge estate for himself.
Murder attempt of Navalny
On 20th August 2020, Alexie Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent and was hospitalized in a serious condition. Two days later he was evacuated to the Charite hospital in Berlin, Germany.
"We have proven that Putin committed this attempted murder," Navalny said.
Recent series of actions
The latest update was the detention of Navalny on arrival from Berlin on January 17, 2021, which led to a country-wide public protest on Saturday on January 23.
The charges brought against Navalny, include an old case in which he received a suspended sentence, and a new case that accused him of fraudulent use of public money. Navalny denies all charges.
The countrywide protesters demanded his release, from the Pacific coast to the Baltic Sea. About 3,000 people being detained and released later.
Moscow court found Alexei Navalny guilty of disobeying the terms of his probation over the 2014 money laundering case and sentenced him to 3 1/2 years in a penal colony.
While in his session, his heartfelt message to his wife drew the attention of the world media. Every big media housed printed this video as “Love for freedom”.
West world reactions to Navalny's imprisonment
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was “deeply concerned" by Russia’s decision to sentence Navalny to prison and urged the Kremlin to release him "unconditionally and immediately."
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said, "Today's verdict against Alexei Navalny is a bitter blow against fundamental freedoms and the rule of law in Russia,".
UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said in a statement, "Today’s perverse ruling, targets the victim who was poisoned; rather than addressing the issue with those responsible. This itself shows Russia is failing to meet the most basic commitments expected of any responsible member of the international community.”
"Political disagreement is never a crime. Respect for human rights and democratic freedom is non-negotiable," Said, the French President, Emmanuel Macron.
Hands down! Alexie Navalny most definitely ignites a spark among the youth in Russia to raise their voices against the corrupt system.
By Aditya Verma
