Alexey and Yulia: Faith, hope … and the greatest of these is love
By unashamed believer in Love, guest columnist Tess Lawrence
The romance between the Navalnys, Alexey and Yulia is destined for historical and cinematic heroic grandeur, now that Vladimir Putin’s nemesis has been put to death by murder most foul.
For sure, in due course, there will be a film, a popera, a musical, a docudrama series, and merch. I bags a tee shirt.
There should be scholarships, and awards in his honour and I daresay, hundreds of babies will be named for him.
Navalny murder, Novichokolat or poison in boxer shorts?
Whether his murder was precipitated by a variant of Novichokolat cookies or no, or poison placed in his boxer shorts, may not be known for some time.
I am transfixed with what I saw in this particular photo of this most extraordinary couple.
Perhaps I saw too much. Perhaps I saw not enough. Regardless it is a photo worth a thousand and one words.
I see Love. Joy. Two Hearts beating as one, visions of dismembered children momentarily leave me
Most of all I see deep love and joy; two hearts beating as one as their eyes lock in sensual embrace.
For a moment, it cleansed my driven journalist’s mind and lacerated soul of visions that often haunt and taunt me; visions of dead, dying and dismembered children of our beleaguered world at the behest of the bloodied hands of adults doing the bidding killing in the sullied names of their fallacious gods.
Navalny’s cause held threat of unhappy ending for family
Given the cruel interplay between kismet, Alexey and Yulia, the sacrifices and trauma endured by the Navalny family whose father willingly placed himself on the frontline of a cause that always held threat of an unhappy personal ending, given Putin’s cowardly penchant for murdering his political rivals and critics.
How can a man so cowardly, so paranoid, the archetypal bully so fearful of certain other men, afraid even of his own invisible shadow, whose politics manifest in sadism, sadomasochism and sadomachismo in equal measure, become the brutal and tyrannical ‘dicktator’ of the largest land mass country in the world?
Putin has turned Russia into a Pariah nation
Despite his power. Despite his obscene wealth, secret opulent palaces (exposed by Navalny), global holdings held by proxies and assets, all stolen from his own people, despite his iron Rule by Fear manifesto and Hitleresque encroaches into Crimea and Ukraine with forces dragooned from prisons and civvie street as well as mandated conscripts, Putin has managed to turn Russia into a pariah nation.
Surrounding himself with acolytes, sycophants and sickos and those supplicants fearful for their own lives and families should Putin catch even a whisper of dissent from them, Putin’s realm is already a catalogue of war mongering and joyless lost years.
His self-love and self-gratification speaks loud and his absence from so many political fora, sanctions notwithstanding reflects his personal insecurities and inability to confront his peers.
Putin’s joyless realm has fashioned Russia into a gulag
At times, it seems as if Putin has fashioned Russia into a gulag of sorts. Somehow, I feel the ghosts of Stalin and Beria lurking in Putin’s dystopian universe.
They never left the Lubyanka building.
Alexey Navalny unnerved Putin
Alexey Navalny’s growing presence and following clearly unnerved Putin.
Putin knows how to handle a man in uniform, but he cannot fathom a man, an Opposition Leader, who dresses in cool clothes, who’s a cool dude with a steadfast family and supporters, with a jocular irrepressible prankster sense of humour, even whilst in his IK-3 prison cell in the notorious ‘Polar Wolf,’ in Russia’s Yamalo-Nenets region, high above the Arctic Circle.
Navalny could take the Kremlin not by bullet but the ballot
Navalny was a leader who could persuade followers with his vision for a Russia without Putin, without taking the Kremlin by the bullet but rather, by the ballot box.
Remember how the vain glorious Putin thought by taking his clothes off, baring his torso on horseback or whatever, he would impress the world.
For a while it was as if Putin tried to emulate the spectacular and handsome Russian borne film star Yul Brynner.
For a while, Putin ludicrously tried to emulate Yul Brynner
He of the flaring nostrils and impressive physique who bared his chest in The King and I was to tragically die young of lung cancer in 1985, but not before he recorded a profoundly moving anti-smoking commercial to be played after the five-pack a day actor’s death.
Such things I am thinking as I contemplate the photo of Alexey and Yulia. It is so far removed from the bleakness of the malevolent Putin. He would have seen this photo of the lovers.
Russian official says Putin obsessed with Alexey Navalny, Yulia and family
A former Russian official who still has contacts on the periphery of Putin’s inner circle tells me that Putin is obsessed with all things Navalny, including Yulia and the children Dasha and Zakhar and remains constantly informed on everything and anything to do with all things Navalny.
Tess… Putin was “in love” with Alexey
“Tess, it was like he was in love with Alexey.” Putin is shown file upon file about Navalny, with endless photos and clandestine images taken by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) and others.
I’m rather in love with Alexey and Yulia myself, I told my friend. To me they represent Russia far more than Putin ever will.
“ … Alexey Navalny is Vladimir Putin’s Taylor Swift… spends more time on Navalny than… Ukraine War…”
“You can say that Alexey Navalny is Vladimir Putin’s Taylor Swift… he spends more time on Navalny than he does the Ukraine War. It is a joke.”
I’m told that Putin took a prurient interest in the conjugal visits Yulia was occasionally allowed when Alexey was in a prison in Pokrov.
Pokrov locals joke Putin perved on cctv Alexey and Yulia’s conjugal visits
Locals joked about how the loving couple were captured on non-secret secret cameras, for every second (pro forma), and that copies were sent to the Kremlin for Tsar Putin’s pleasure.
Putin taken with Yulia’s beauty and grace
He is said to be taken with Yulia’s beauty, elegance and grace and jealous of the obvious love and affection that she and Alexey unashamedly display in public, regardless of whom is watching.
Somehow, with their arms locked around each other, they seem utterly absorbed in a world of their own making; in a time suspended from the shackles of measurement in minutes or seconds. There is just the now; just the moment. The rest of us do not exist.
Star crossed lovers Yulia and Alexey and their date with destiny – In all the Vodka joints in all the towns in all the world…
Am a believer in romantic love. I think it wondrous that in all the vodka joints in all the towns in all the world, Yulia and Alexey’s fell into each other’s arms. The star-crossed lovers had a date with destiny, and they have surely kept it, at great cost to themselves but one hopes, for the greater good, small consolation that may be.
Yulia, Alexey’s Muse. Theirs a marriage of equals
Theirs appears to be a great and abiding love. By all accounts, Yulia was Alexey’s Muse and they were equal partners in a marriage that was also a political tour de force that remains determined to free Russia from the megalomanic, despotic and malignant regime of the psychopathic dicktator President Putin.
Comparatively little has been written about the critical role Yulia played in saving her husband’s life after that first poisoning in 2020. It was Yulia who fought tooth and nail, including writing directly to Putin, to evacuate a then dying Alexey from Russia to Germany.
Yulia’s decisive role in keeping her husband alive after first murder attempt
In her compelling and revelatory 2021 article for Vanity Fair, Russian born American journalist Julia Ioffe dug deep behind the lurid scene of the Navalny assassination attempt.
Ioffe’s forceful prose consigned Yulia Navalnaya’s rightful place in history, not only in relation to Russia but to the world. Navalnaya was no mere adjunct not Alexey Navalny, but she was his equal in every way. Unquestionably, her courageous and resolute intervention saved her husband’s life.
From Ioffe’s article, some powerful excerpts:
… At the hospital in Omsk, Navalnaya would encounter a wall of doctors who seemed more scared of their civilian superiors than they were of losing their patient. They were reinforced – or kept in line – by a small battalion of plainclothes federal security officers, all intent on keeping her from seeing her husband. To enter his room, she would need to present a marriage certificate, they said, and secure verbal consent from Navalny, who was still unconscious and on life support. She would stare them down, out-argue them, and bend their will to hers, all while a gathering swarm of journalists trained their cameras and microphones and smartphones on her. She would finally break through to see him, his body sprouting tubes and cords like vines, writhing in near-constant seizures. (She wouldn’t know until days later that this was the result of a military-grade nerve agent in the Novichok family.) She would have to fight with doctors and hospital administrators to see the results of her husband’s lab work, to give impromptu press conferences on the hospital steps, to sneak around the city to find the German doctors who had arrived with a private medevac plane and whom the authorities had barred her from seeing. She would have to demand, over and over, that the Omsk hospital release her husband and allow him to be loaded onto the plane and taken to Berlin, the only way, everyone knew, of possibly saving his life…
… For two days, Russia and the world waited nervously to see if Navalny, the only halfway plausible alternative to Vladimir Putin, lived or died. Instead, they saw Navalnaya. This pretty blond woman in a black leather jacket who had always appeared silently at her husband’s side was suddenly alone on the world stage, doing battle with the entire repressive machinery of the Russian state to pull her husband from the jaws of death. What people saw astounded them. “Russia is still a sexist country,” says economist Sergei Guriev, a friend and onetime adviser to Navalny. “People think that a woman is not an independent person, especially if she doesn’t work. Therefore, they didn’t understand that Yulia is an independent person. And then they understood. They saw Yulia fight the machine and win. I think for many people it was eye-opening.”
…The next day, with the plane from Germany already on the ground in Omsk, Navalnaya issued a public letter to Putin. “I am officially addressing you,” she wrote, “with a demand for permission to transport Alexey Anatolievich Navalny to the Federal Republic of Germany.” Within hours, she was boarding the plane alongside her husband, invisible on a gurney that was part cocoon, part coffin. Her formulation – a demand rather than a plea – was not lost on the Russian opposition. Even at her most desperate and vulnerable, she approached Putin, the man trying to kill her husband, not as a fearful supplicant but as a defiant equal.
In the following months, as Navalnaya and her husband documented his resurrection and recovery on social media, they became the measure of decency and nobility for millions of Russians…
Alexey a Lazarus of sorts – thanks to his love, Yulia
If Yulia had not been the tour de force she is, Alexey Navalny would not have ultimately been brought back from the brink of death. Still, he was a Lazarus of sorts because of her- and because she was able to get into Russia and somehow take control.
Yulia learns of Alexey’s death
Yulia was in Germany attending the Munich Security Conference 2024 when, along with the rest of us, she first learned of her husband’s murder.
She came out on centre stage, just after US Vice President Kamala Harris spoke and delivered an electrifying speech, addressing Vladimir Putin as much as the world and Navalny’s supporters.
A Message from Yulia Navalnaya:
The prison authorities issued this statement in Russian confirming Navalny’s death:
УФСИН России по Ямало-Ненецкому автономному округу сообщает
16.02.2024
16.02.2024 года в исправительной колонии №3 осужденный Навальный А.А. после прогулки почувствовал себя плохо, практически сразу потеряв сознание.
(English translation) THE FEDERAL PENITENTIARY SERVICE OF RUSSIA IN THE YAMALO-NENETS AUTONOMOUS OKRUG REPORTS
16.02.2024
On 16.02.2024, in correctional colony No. 3, convict A.A. Navalny felt ill after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness.
The medical staff of the institution immediately arrived, and an ambulance team was called.
All the necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, which did not give positive results. Ambulance doctors pronounced the convict dead.
The cause of death is being established.
Yulia vows to sip from the poisoned chalice of opposition leadership
Since her Munich speech, Navalnaya has made it clear she will not give up Navalny’s fight; that she will also sip from what some feel is a poisoned chalice.
She and Alexey knew such a day could come and they surely would have prepared for it.
When Alexey Navalny went back to Russia after Putin’s first attempt to assassinate him failed, he too was taking the fight – not flight – to Putin. Navalny was pissing in Putin’s face.
Navalny’s return to his homeland was a public humiliation for Putin and confirmed Alexey Navalny had no respect for, or fear of Putin. Even if the world didn’t always know where Navalny was or what was happening to him, the international spotlight was firmly trained on Navalny and his predicament.
Navalny had what Putin didn’t – respect
Navalny had what Putin wanted; something that had never been freely given. Respect. Respect on the international stage too.
It was not only a courageous decision, but it was also a show of solidarity with like-minded fellow Russians within – and without Russia and its great diaspora that includes Australia.
Navalny became a growing symbol of a glimpse of Russia without Putin. He had an indefatigable sense of humour, sarcasm and satire that was always present in his journalism, documentaries, podcasts and interviews.
I sent the ‘love photo’ to a few dear ones and wrote of how powerful a photo it was. How sexually charged it was, with the power of love, of secrets between lovers and how it made the viewer (me) feel almost a voyeur; even though we are all invited to view them through the collective peephole of social media.
The photo: luscious carnality in Alexeys’ eyes as he looks at his beloved Yulia
There is a luscious carnality in Alexey’s eyes that goes beyond lust to an even lustier place. Swoon. His lips are slightly parted, and his eyes burn with love. Even from here I can feel his breath upon my face.
Yulia’s lips are not parted. But her profile exudes both knowing and shared intimacy between the two, and she displays an elegant and steely queenly resolve that has already manifested into a leading role of Keeper of the Flame.
I ponder upon what Sister Wendy would have made of this picture, given her daring and courageous proclivity to describe fleshly attributes in artworks, as she saw fit.
Alexey Navalny more powerful in death than life
Alexey Navalny may yet prove to be more powerful in death than he was in life insofar as Putin and his henchmen are concerned.
The photo first appeared, I understand in Navalny’s Instagram account, posted on St Valentine’s Day.
Navalnys make it clear they fight for all political prisoners, not just Alexey
Yulia has made it clear that she holds Vladimir Putin responsible for Alexey’s awful death. The couple has made it clear their cause and their concern is not only for themselves but for all political prisoners, Russian or otherwise.
If you think such talk of Love is a bit twee or Mills and Hoonish, then go for it. You may be right.
Navalnys campaign pivots on jou and optimism, hope and faith, greater good
The thing is, that closer scrutiny of the Nalvalny Opposition campaign
reveals it pivots on joy and optimism, hope and faith in the greater good. And Love.
On his Valentine’s Day post featuring the ‘Love Photo’ Alexey wrote to Yulia… I feel you near me every second, and I love you more and more…
Two days later, Alexey Navalny was dead.
Their social media accounts are full of embraces and kisses.
Navalny’s Chief of Staff, Leonid Volkov is quoted as saying “Putin is fear. Navalny is Love. That’s why we will win” Volkov announced on Twitter/X.
Their campaign rhetoric is far from the phallic war mongering machismo of Putin and his political siblings around the world; the so-called iron men who rule by instilling fear; who do not realise you cannot enforce respect. It has to be earned and freely given.
Putin must now be aware he killed the wrong person. That is, if he wanted to annihilate the Opposition. Instead, in Alexey’s wake, he has inadvertently paved the way for someone else who may yet prove to be an even more formidable foe than Navalny.
Yulia Navalnaya is already deemed a contender for Russia’s first female President. She certainly has the credentials, the capacity and street cred amongst younger Russian supporters and yes, there is dissent and disagreement within the Opposition and also about Navalny’s leadership that has yet to be overcome.
Nonetheless Yulia has vowed to carry on the work of the Anti-Corruption Foundation. Even though her pledge is made in Russian, you are sure to understand every word.
Today, Yulia and the Anti-Corruption Foundation announced the lanch of a large scale election campaign under the slogan ‘ The Noon Against Putin ‘ with the aim of showing many Russians are really against the dictatorship.
From the Press Release:
On March 17, election day, the “Russia without Putin” campaign will not end. The name of the campaign makes it clear that it will only end when the main goal has been achieved.
Alexei Navalny has become a symbol of the fight against Putin. We will do everything we can not only to avenge Putin’s power for this despicable murder, but also to unite all the free people of Russia under Alexei’s name. To liberate our country, end the war and bring all those responsible to justice.
Putin beware. Yulia’s coming for you.
Putin better watch out.
She is coming for him.
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38 comments
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Roswell
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Ken Robinson
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tess lawrence
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Andrew Smith
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tess lawrence
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corvusboreus
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Clakka
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tess lawrence
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corvusboreus
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tess lawrence
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Clakka
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B Sullivan
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corvusboreus
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leefe
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Clakka
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Clakka
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A Commentator
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tess lawrence
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Clakka
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Roswell
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corvusboreus
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Roswell
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A Commentator
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Canguro
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Steve Davis
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Jim
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corvusboreus
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Steve Davis
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corvusboreus
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Steve Davis
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B Sullivan
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tess lawrence
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Canguro
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tess lawrence
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Roswell
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tess lawrence
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Ken Robinson
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tess lawrence
Return to home pageMore brilliance, Tess.
Tess
You have uncovered the greatest love and sacrifice story ever told, this has to be written into eternal history and treasured, the monster PUTIN doesnt understand what he has created, this lady will haunt him until his dying day, which hopefully will be soon. A wonderful story tess as only you can pen it a masterpiece which really got to me.
Thank you Dear Roswell, such wonderful support. Please share and encourage all to support AIM Network, like you do.
Good article, though Navalny is still subjected to criticism from the faux anti-imperialist left ‘tankies’ and the right, repeating Kremlin talking points. Latter includes some of Navalny’s nationalism and/or antipathy towards ethnic minorities in Russia, but this ignores how such sentiments are shared by both local right and left in Central Eastern Europe.
Further, the cheek of those trying to compare Assange and or even Trump himself with Navalny that muddies the water on alliances and allies; on Assange and especially his father:
‘Julian’s activism probably comes from his father, John Shipton, an “anti-war activist” who’s helped Julian with launching WikiLeaks and the WikiLeaks Party. He also arranged a trip to Syria to meet with Bashar al-Assad and even planned to open an office for the party there.
In recent years, Shipton has been seen regularly at Australian “Z-rallies” in support of the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine. Incidentally, Shipton got interested in Julian after he became famous in Australia – before that, he was almost completely absent from Julian’s life….
…There’s also strong evidence that, like his father, he’s extremely anti-US and biased towards the Kremlin. His associates had strong connections with Russia, he planned to flee to Russia and even made a propaganda show on Russia Today back in 2012.’
https://vatniksoup.com/en/soups/269/
Dearest Ken, I’m moved that it got to you. It got to me. One reason I think their story moved me was because it made me think of all the political hostages and prisoners around the world – and all their families and friends and people in the neighbourhood – and strangers – we are all affected. And what of the scores of such prisoners who are not famous and who the world has long forgotten ?
Andrew Smith,
Useful link, thank you.
Next time there is yet another article fixated on “the only imprisoned journalist that matters”, i will remember Assange’s quote regarding the potential fate of Afganis working with US & allies against the Taliban after wikileaks published their unredacted identities;
“They’re informants. If they get killed then they got what’s coming to them. They deserve it”.
A 2023 global review of press freedom and abuses against journalists.
https://rsf.org/en/2023-world-press-freedom-index-journalism-threatened-fake-content-industry
In terms of international rankings, Russia is rated the 16th worst abuser (164th out of 180 nations).
Thank you Tess,
A beautiful story of the truth in a passionate state.
Being pressed and diverted to satisfy the aspirations of others will mostly lead to anxiety and discord, and it seems for the cowardly bullies it provides an irresistible opportunity for them to take their revenge on existence. Sadly it appears to have become the expedient calculus of those that would seek to dominate.
The truth of love, sensuality, sexuality, endurance and determined honesty brings about trust and well-being, along with it’s coming together by shared vulnerability and self-reliance. Love’s journey will be the teacher.
Art can only report on it from a distance, and pretenders will be endlessly and innately revealed to all.
For those unfulfilled, but with the love ingredients, keeping on the burning search would make the world greatly improved.
Oooops, Tess, you’ve got me stuck here. I must go and do the dishes.
You made me giggle Dear Clakka, about the dishes I mean. Do you wear gloves ?
Really, your words are very poetic.I just don’t get why people are sometimes embarrassed to talk of Love, and yet
speak of hate so easily. Even when a kidlet, this puzzled me. Have a fab evening. What are you cooking tonight ?
C’mon, share it with us.
Tess Lawrence,
You didn’t address me directly, but I’ll presume to take the invitation as general, especially as I feel somewhat qualified to speak as one rep of those more easily inclined to vocalise causes for hostility than celebrations of embrace.
3 excuses for espousing – > + viewpoints;
A) when suffering is acknowledged as a universal condition, expressions of intimate joy can feel like insensitive gloating.
B) Contentment of life within existent parameters is actively discouraged by a predominant media influence actively peddling exponential consumption (you must desire more!).
C) Establishing, maintaining and improving mutually copacetic relationships often requires much more sustained personal discipline of inclination than that needed to keep afightin’ & afeudin’.
That said, even as person relatively unaffected by the passionate embraces of intimate relationship, I can look at the photo inspiring your article and see,
(through behavioral prism),
Intense eye contact, comfortably ensconsed and vibrantly afire, a meeting of minds and souls on level field, an invitation to a dance where both lead and follow, a mutual pledge to journey hand in hand through life’s twists and undulations, at least whilst time and fate permit.
Seeing such, i cannot help but feel immediate empathy towards some of the deep grief that must be firing the righteous anger of Yulia Navalniya at the heartless injustice behind her husband’s death.
PS, re doing the dishes;
“If you helped eat it but didn’t help cook it, you should always offer to help clean it up.”
So sez mum.
I’m eating a leftover reheat dinner for one, so I guess that means I’ll be washing up as well.
STORY UPDATE:t
Compelling interview by Stephen Sakhur with Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s friend, confidante and Chief of Staff.
HARDtalk – Leonid Volkov: How strong is Putin’s grip on Russia? – BBC Sounds
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct1n2l
Tess & cb, ha ha ha haar,
My loves being far and wide, I do everything to sustain my bag-a-bones, shelter and travel.
As for gloves, I have some, but I seldom put them on, nor give cause to have to ‘take off my gloves’. Certainly for dishes, no need for gloves or detergent, just a meditation, some hot water and a good scrubber.
In the aftermath of the big bushfires, it being an unseasonal stinker weekend, there shall be no cooking tonight.
A repast of tomato, avocado, carrot, apple, dates, yoghurt, and whole cold fish, pre-cooked – caught by my very own hand-line at the local lake.
Maybe revert to some cooking-up on Tuesday. Mind you, narry a day passes where I can resist egging 🙂
What utter nonsense. Adopting the lynch mentality championed by US culture (the term lynching is named after Judge Lynch who remorselessly executed anyone accused of being a royalist sympathiser during their War of Independence) any accusation without any proof is eagerly seized upon to feed your Russophobian fantasies that Putin is a murderous monster. Condemned as guilty with nothing more than relentless implausible, ridiculous and unsubstantiated accusations. The fact that the extremely unpopular and utterly discredited Navalny posed no genuine threat the to the incredibly popular Putin in Russia (and the rest of the non-Western world) should prompt the question, what benefit would Putin get from having him killed? If he didn’t die of natural causes and Navalny was indeed murdered it is far more plausible that the US somehow managed to liquidate their failed asset in a final attempt to use his death to portray Putin as a ruthless despot. Get it into your heads, prejudice is not proof. Accusation is not guilt.
You may have heard just recently that Victoria Nuland, the principal instigator of the War in Ukraine has resigned. There is plenty of evidence to regard her as a murderous monster. She is known to have organised the lethal coup that overthrew the legitimate democratic government of Ukraine and she is on the record selecting who the ministers in the illegal coup government should be, that resulted in the bannng of the Russian language in public throughout Ukraine as well as banning Russian culture and the persecution of the inevitable Russian speaking protestors, not to mention expanding NATO into Ukraine knowing full well that Russia regarded this action as an intolerable threat of aggression against its National Security. The blood of all who have died in this conflict is on her hands. Her attempts to destroy Russia with callous indifference to the wasted lives of Ukrainians have failed both economically and militarily so she is being ‘let go’. She managed to keep the war going for ten years but now with Ukraine’s army all but destroyed and staring at immanent defeat the only option left is sending in NATO troops which as we have all been warned could escalate to nuclear war. Unlike Putin the accusations against Nuland are backed up not just with a wealth of evidence but with admissions from Nuland herself.
Do you think they should make a movie celebrating Nuland? Somehow I doubt if you would really want to see a movie that accurately portrayed your failed conman hero Navalny. Is a corrupt protagonist obsessed with a mission to undermine and betray his own nation that had he succeeded would have resulted in the destruction of the lives so many innocent citizens really an appealing premise for a movie? Would you regard his failure to bring about the collapse of Russia as a tragedy?
Those people across the road gave Putin a case of the shits by not acceding to his arbitrary demands upon others sovereignty, so Putin went next door and started mass-murdering his neighbours.
Those folk across the road from Putin sure do have some serious bloodstains on their hands.
Sully:
Of course Putin is just a big ol’ softy. A cuddly little teddy bear. It’s entirely coincidental that everyone who opposes or displeases him somehow accidentally ends up dead by “falling”: out of windows or obscure poisons and the like. All his political detractors are just greedy, lying, corrupt, opportunists while he is as pure as the driven snow. [/sarc]
BS,
I don’t see anything in Tess’s story “Russiaphobic” as you allege. Your accusation of “utter nonsense” is then flimsily backed by a hostile spray, neglecting the vast complexities leading to and ongoing in the current Russia / Ukraine war and its concomitant narratives with a very limited ‘Nuland’ focus.
Further, your traducing of Navalney, starting, “extremely unpopular and utterly discredited Navalny …” independently assessed as having about 20% popular support (a not insignificant 23 million voting folk) and funding, in the face of the independently monitored and assessed vote rigging by Putin and his co-opted, and brutal autocratic oppressions and ‘disappearances’ by Putin and his captured Kremlin operatives, along with, for example, the well founded accusations and evidence of Putin’s decades-long promotion of the oligarchy and subsequent manipulation of them for his own personal financial gain and political entrenchment at huge cost to ordinary Russians.
In the absence of consideration of many of the world’s experts on the matter, and of any broader discourse on the complexities, the suffrage of Russian nationals, and your clearly enunciated hostility, one can only conclude your comments are affected by cognitive bias. Your closing snarky remarks and questions about movie-making serve only to drag your commentary into an appearance of fulminating hyperbole alienating the reader.
Such a pity, when there is an opportunity to inform and be informed.
Tess, you mention (in comments);
“I just don’t get why people are sometimes embarrassed to talk of Love, and yet speak of hate so easily.”
Here’s an interesting grab I listened to last night; “Is your privacy sacred?”
“She is known to have organised the lethal coup that overthrew the legitimate democratic government of Ukraine”
1/ Viktor Yanukovych was removed from office by a vote of the Ukraine Parliament – 328 to zero
2/ the mass public protests were the result of Yanukovych reneging on his commitment to seek membership of the EU
3/ instead he sought to join the Russian trade zone
4/ Yanukovych lost control of the apparatus of government because the police and military declined to comply with his directions to shoot civilians
5/ There is legitimate criticism of all parties, but it’s clear that Ukraine didn’t wish to return to being a Russian colony
Dear Clakka, thank you for jumping to my defence. Very moving. I wonder if B Sullivan and A Commentator know one another ?
Alas their Gravatar profiles are forbidden. I think both names are aliases and it’s really Vladimir Putin writing both these comments !
I shall have to be wary of any Novichokolat eggs this Easter.
Tess,
Here was I readying to post the “Is your privacy sacred” podcast – just a distantly related curio, when I was assailed by the BS outburst.
Perhaps BS is having too much red cordial, and sugar on his serial [ooops cereal] – cereal offender.
I’m quite sure you are well capable of defending yerself, nevertheless, in the cool of the morning before a forecast stinker of a day, I just couldn’t resist a comeback as a quest for balance.
After all, ’tis the season to beware of loaded egging.
Tess, I think AC was defending you by disputing what BS was claiming.
From his comments here, AC is definitely not an admirer of Putin.
Tess,
I doubt that AC & BS are one and the same, as they present completely contradictory narrative claims regarding the circumstances around the 2014 upheavals in Ukraine.
B Sullivan is definitely sympathetic to Putin & co, whilst A commentator, is much less so, in fact, I’d go as far as to say quite the opposite.
(in other threads he has repeatedly refered to Putin as a “fascist”)
Personally I reckon some clarity can be gleaned regarding realities occuring during wars, conflicts and skirmishes, by looking into the statistics garnished from report by on-ground aid agencies regarding number and circumstances of non-combatant deaths and injuries.
As an aside, I salute those heroic people in deep and grateful admiration, as they both alleviate the agony and suffering of the innocents, whilst also providing hard citizen science regarding human consequence of military aggression.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293409/civilian-deaths-related-to-russia-ukraine-conflict/
2014 was a bad year in the Ukraine, over 2000 civilians were killed due to conflict.
Things steadily improved year by year from there until by 2021 there were 25 civilian deaths during 365 days.
Then came Feb 2022 and Putin launched the “special military operation'” (a full-scale multi-divisional invasion, aka war)
https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2023/07/ukraine-civilian-casualties-24-february-2022-30-june-2023
368 innocent deaths in the last 4 days of February, 4143 during the month of March.
Bad Vlad, very, very bad.
I can assure everyone that AC and BS are two different people. AC has been commenting here from the very beginning in 2013. He is a friend of Michael and Carol.
Well Roswell, I’m not sure Michael and Carol would own up to that. They have their reputations to consider
It ought to be evident to any discerning reader that B Sullivan and A Commentator are not one and the same person; their writing styles, as expressions of temperament and intelligence, like fingerprints, are completely different.
We must thank CB for continually reminding us of the responsibility of NATO in the deaths of civilians in Ukraine.
We must not forget that just a few weeks after the start of the conflict, Ukraine and Russia were about to sign an end to hostilities until NATO intervened to continue the killing.
Jacques Baud, a high-ranking NATO figure, when interviewed stated “Just one day after the start of the offensive Zelenskyy asked to have negotiations with the Russians. And you had a first round of negotiations that started at the Belarus border, and this was stopped, in fact, by the European Union. And in March you had exactly the same scenario. Zelenskyy approached the Russians with this offer, and two days after he made his offer to the Russians, the European Union came again with exactly the same thing as the first time, a second package of 500 million euros for weapons, and in addition to that [UK Prime Minister] Boris Johnson called Zelenskyy to ask him to withdraw his offer, otherwise all the support will be cut. And Boris Johnson came to Kiev a few days later and reiterated what he just said: that means no negotiations, otherwise we cut all offers.”
“And you had a third occasion when that happened, that was in August, when you had this meeting between [Turkish president] Erdoğan and Zelenskyy in Lviv. And here again, Erdoğan offered his services to mediate some negotiation with the Russians, and just a few days after that Boris Johnson came unexpectedly in Kiev, and again, in a very famous press conference he said explicitly, ‘No negotiations with the Russians. We have to fight. There is no room for negotiation with the Russians.’ So, on three occasions, in fact, the West prevented any negotiation with the Russians.”
“And in April, as you mentioned, that was probably the most developed offer by Zelenskyy. It was a very comprehensive offer and included neutrality of Ukraine and the stationing of troops under supervision of external powers including Russia. So, it was a very extensive agreement, actually, and the Russians were very positive about this agreement.”
“In my book I mention only Ukrainian sources, and Ukrainian sources said explicitly that Boris Johnson and the West basically prevented a peace agreement. So that’s not an invention from some Putin partisan here from the West; that’s also what the Ukrainians felt.”
Or there’s this from NATO’s highest ranking military official, General Harald Kujat.
“In April 2022, Johnson did everything to disrupt the Istanbul agreements. Who exactly was he referring to? (when Johnson spoke on behalf of “the West.”) I don’t know. Obviously, we were talking about several NATO member countries. I find this Johnson story particularly regrettable. Just imagine: a huge number of people killed, the destruction of the country – all this (negotiations) could have been completed back then.”
The ongoing civilian casualties result from NATO interference at the political level.
But whadda bout this?
WHAT HAPPENED TO ALEXEI NAVALNY THIS TIME ROUND
https://johnhelmer.net/page/2/
Enter another gaslighting neo-tankie.
Attempting to absolve Vladamir Putin of bearing any responsibility for launching a military invasion of Ukraine immediately causing thousands of civilian deaths.
Detestable, contemptible, loathsome.
I agree.
Gaslighting is detestable, contemptible and loathsome.
From Psychology Today – “Gaslighting is an insidious form of manipulation and psychological control that feeds false information to victims…”
CB has not had the courage to name the alleged gaslighter, but surely he has the courage to present the false information that this scoundrel has foisted upon us.
Yes, Steve Davis is the Putin-ringkissing serial-gaslighting neo-tankie troll to whom I refer.
I’m shocked !
Shocked, I tell you !
So, um, er… about that false information I gave.
No?
Hello to the AIM network, it appears my comments have considerably ruffled your contributors’ feathers. I have never seen the movie “Fanny by Gaslight” but I understand that this is where the term “Gaslighting” originated and I think I understand that Gaslighting is a deliberate process intended to deceive and manipulate. My comments are never meant to deceive, I am not gaslighting, I am dissenting. So why does my dissent warrant accusations that I am a troll, or a gaslighter or even the ridiculous notion that I am someone pretending to be another commentator? The only reason I comment on this network is because it simply permits me the opportunity to do so, unlike media networks like the ABC that have outsourced all comments on its reporting to data mining platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Nor am I an apologist for Putin. The AIM network can perhaps verify that my first comment relating to the war in Ukraine was that the most important rule in the Art of War is to ‘know your enemy’ instead of demonising him, especially with unsubstantiated and ridiculous accusations that are an insult to our intelligence. The real gaslighters seem to think that if they just make an accusation then that is enough to prove guilt. I prefer Cisero’s advice, when you don’t know who the guilty party is then ask who benefits. We don’t even know if Navalny, a failed CIA asset, was even murdered. He was certainly no threat to Putin. That is pure fantasy for western propaganda purposes aimed squarely at the gullible.
There is so much evidence available to all now that the Ukraine War was deliberately provoked by the West as an excuse to impose sanctions and destabilise the Russian economy and bring about regime change. Nuland was the architect but she failed the whole plan backfired and so now she’s gone. The fog of war is lifting and the west’s consistent opposition to a negotiated peace has been clearly exposed. Isn’t gaslighting what the Western media practiced with its insistence that the Russian invasion always had to be described as unprovoked?
So I ask you, is it really so hard to challenge the validity of my dissenting argument instead of rushing to falsely misrepresent me as a gaslighting troll and deceiver just because I have expressed dissent?
Dear CB, thank you for your comment ( and loving all the backtalk re meals and dishes ) and just like to say, found these following words of yours rather poetic as well – and they made me go back and have another look at the photo !!!!
That said, even as person relatively unaffected by the passionate embraces of intimate relationship, I can look at the photo inspiring your article and see,
(through behavioral prism),
Intense eye contact, comfortably ensconsed and vibrantly afire, a meeting of minds and souls on level field, an invitation to a dance where both lead and follow, a mutual pledge to journey hand in hand through life’s twists and undulations, at least whilst time and fate permit.
B Sullivan, the 1944 British film you refer to, Fanny by Gaslight, has nothing to do with the origin of the term gaslighting, it’s another 1944 production called Gaslight, an American psychological thriller which gave its name to the use of that word as a descriptor for actions such as manipulation and deception designed to undermine the target person.
G’day Dear Roswell, thanks for the heads up. And just love AC’s response.
But just for the record, did I say that both people were one and the same ?
No.
Sorry, Tess. I misread your comment.
I’m now off to self-flagellate as my punishment.
Again, I apologise.
STOP PRESS: NEWS UPDATE
LEONID VOLKOV ATTACKED WITH HAMMER AND TEARGAS: –
Leonid Volkov: Alexei Navalny ally attacked in Lithuania – BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68549966
Just goes to prove Putin is a homicidal maniac and must be stopped by any means before he starts WW3, if it hasnt already done so.
Dear Ken, one of my long standing contacts, quoted in the article, warned me that Navalny’s murder would not be the end of it. I wonder who who really is behind this attempt. I hope something has been captured on CCTV or Citizen Phone! It would be good to establish who is really behind this attack. Have been told it is unlikely to be a professional attempt, given the weapons used. And yet someone else said, it could be a deliberate attempt at a warning to Volkov- or to imply an amateur was involved.