Navalny and other Russian "premature deaths"
The cost-benefit issues of political assassinations
So famed Western asset and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny suffers a premature death in his Siberian prison exile, and the Western MSN is having quite the field day. Let’s just note that the top story these last few days is not the US blocking a UN ceasefire vote on Gaza, nor that the civilian death toll in this context is approaching 30 000.
Needless to say, Navalny’s death is not really very opportune for the Russian hierarchy. Its recent successes in Ukraine, topped by US funding drying up now comes on the heels of the Tucker Carlson PR win of last week.
So Putin then whacks Navalny just to shoot himself in the foot? To make the game more exciting? Or is it on the rationale that there’s now enough ambient goodwill to afford bumping this great threat Navalny off?
Sure, that would make some sense, but Navalny wasn’t really much of a problem to the current Russian hierarchy, especially in light of the administration’s recent consolidation of public approval, and the drop in both recognizability and approval for Navalny’s part. Only 9% “approved of Navalny’s political activities” in January 2023 as opposed to about 20% in September 2020. Almost 60% disapproved, and almost a quarter of the respondents claimed they’ve never even heard of him.
In brief, Navalny’s continued presence would mean basically nothing in the upcoming Russian presidential election next month, with Putin’s approval rating sitting at about 65%, and Navalny’s just shy of 2%. Him being ostensibly murdered in cold blood would be way more useful to the opposition.
Yeah. It’s currently being used as cover for totally organic rallies against Putin in “Argentina, Armenia, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK, and the US”.
Irish singer Bono of U2 led crowds in a chant of Navalny's name at his concert in Las Vegas on 18 February 2024, stating "Tonight, the people who believe in freedom must say his name. Not just remember it, but say it."
(Wikipedia.)
So it seems like exquisitely bad timing for Putin to have Navalny conspicuously assassinated, but then again, the Russians are just stupid orks, so normal rational considerations don’t really apply.
Jokes aside, this would imply that Russian deep state opposition to the current ruling hierarchy, with or without the aid of the West, would have some motive here. One could imagine that a contending faction within the Russian power structure took advantage of this opportune moment to dampen the Putin administration’s successes and rising popularity - but this seems like a high-risk, low-reward proposition, since Navalny’s death is very far from a game changer, and will not really sway the elections much.
The sense in which Western media now capitalizes on Navalny’s death, and how it’s being used to shore up recalcitrant further support for the proxy war in Ukraine, does bespeak a rather stronger motive on “our” part:
This is not to imply that the Russian hierarchy would shy away from murdering political opponents. It’s a state enmeshed within the capitalist framework, which basically means it’s either a puppet of one, or an actual network of crime families populating an institution constantly beset by dog-eat-dog competition on an international scale. Of course they’re going to kill people when it benefits them.
Sergey Yushenkov, West-aligned liberal Russian politician, was for instance probably assassinated by the Russian state for his indirect role in fomenting Islamic terrorism and destabilization connected to the background of the Chechen wars. He was on a committé investigating the 9/99 bombings, a likely FSB false flag that provided Russia with casus belli for the Second Chechen war, which then in part had been instigated by the West to deprive Russia of key pipeline routes and petroleum reserves in the Caucasus.
Anna Politkovskaya, US-born Russian journalist who was also emphasizing the FSB connection to the 9/99 bombings, was probably also murdered in 2006 for similar reasons. Alexandr Litvinenko, the famed polonium victim killed the same year, was also preparing to publish a book on the FSB connection.
And Boris Nemtsov, deputy prime minister, staunch Putin critic, and WEF alumni was not unlikely eliminated in 2015, not least for interfering with national security issues connected with the civil war in the Ukraine, obstructions which potentially could have hamstrung the strategically crucial annexation of Crimea and the consolidation and defense of Donbas.
All of this would serve to emphasize that the Russians aren’t strangers to political assassinations nor to the violent elimination of individuals that could derail the intentions and goals of the ruling hierarchy.
But the indirect implication would also be that such assassinations aren’t wanton or random, and at least to some degree integrated in the calculated operations of the institutional machinery according to some cost-benefit analysis.
So why kill Alexei Navalny at this moment?
The West lives up inside its own rectum. It stinks in here. It’s not Bono huffing your own gas, the belief that ‘we’ decide who rules one place or another. Just ass.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/brandon-rotting-in-the-white-house/
This is hilarious as usual. And I say that in the context of yesterday sitting in a Thai Buffet down here in Skåne overhearing 3 regulars reading the crux of the “Trump news” to their table of democracy-concerned Swedes
It just absolutely kills me listening to euros believing they have any idea about anything, let alone whatever they think they know about the USA. I mean, even the ones who ‘go there’, drop by for a visit to San Fran or Vegas or whatever the fuck, or even study there, they know absolutely nothing, just zero, understand nothing. And of course, have no idea what they don’t know, super confident in their ‘knowing’ as a result.
All to their own demise as it’s an American war on THEM, easy-picking target, low hanging fruit, the only targets left for the US
consider this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvYWG4dTAls