Nivalny; an incredible figure for democracy and free speech

[Jitendra Hydonus]

https://apple.news/AYyod7boRQZ2eFkEdioyF9Q

[Jitendra Hydonus]

https://youtu.be/miMrRSC_4NA?si=4U3zRQPtfaGi1Q0J

What Alexei Navalny wrote in his final letters from prison before dying

[Jitendra Hydonus]

https://apple.news/ArHfp5a-CRdCpCH73PWaJTQ

Nivalny denied places for his burial in Russia.

[Jitendra Hydonus]

Alexey Navalny told lawyer he suspected he was being poisoned in prison.

https://apple.news/AApnCSV4dTGKJY3vtopVlYw

When asked why Navalny continued to speak out after being saddled with several criminal cases, Mikhailova ( Navalny’s lawyer) said: "He's built like that. Sees the goal and goes towards it. He didn't care what happened — he walked his own path, and nothing could stop him."

[Jitendra Hydonus]

https://youtu.be/l4Lq7gaKW4A?si=MhCT5lBsh2tvTGTf

https://youtu.be/25qEVGqPwLk?si=yoREf0N9fXpmYyAw

[Jitendra Hydonus]

It had long been clear the election would be neither free nor fair: Putin would be the only real candidate standing, with all his prominent critics either dead, imprisoned, in exile or struck off the ballot. But by simply showing up at the appointed hour, Russians could voice their disapproval and expose the vote — intended by the Kremlin to deliver the ultimate acclamation of Putin after his assault on Ukraine — as bogus.

Navalny’s death just over two weeks later — officially from natural causes, a claim vehemently disputed by his supporters and family who maintain he was murdered — has given the movement new impetus.

After thousands of Russians braved the cold and the authorities to line up during his funeral and lay a small hill of flowers on his grave, Navalny’s call has been taken up by his widow and political heir Yulia Navalnaya.

https://apple.news/AsSFCC4-mR6uQirEdFtJlig

[Jitendra Hydonus]

https://youtu.be/yHEKdNsmj6c?si=qi5l5JoqK0XvOYR5

[Jitendra Hydonus]

“You are not dealing with a politician, but a bloody monster.” ~Yulia

https://youtu.be/9igTd2p6mlI?si=O59IaPAZo37lo1rS

“A vote without a choice is no vote at all. With dissenting voices silenced in the public discourse and barred from running, imprisoned or murdered, Putin will continue his autocracy over Russia, deploying a cynical rubber-stamp election including illegal voting in occupied Ukraine,” Kearns, a Conservative MP, said. “I fully support Yulia’s call. Countries should not recognise the outcome of the election and Putin as president.”

The Sunday Times

There is one thing most important to remember about the murder of Jesus Christ; killing a righteous man only increases his legitimacy. And so it is with Nivalny as well.

[Jitendra Hydonus]

From Beyond the Grave, Russian Dissident Alexei Navalny Challenges Vladimir Putin at the Polls


https://apple.news/AHlC2MzgFTre2-4VdvqKsDw

[mccoy]

MMMmmm..., no wonder that he was persecuted as public enemy #1

[Jitendra Hydonus]

Navalny’s longtime ally and former chief of staff, Leonid Volkov, was attacked with a hammer near his home in Lithuania on March 12, only three days before the start of voting in Russia. (Authorities in Lithuania blamed the attack on Moscow, but no arrests have yet been made.) While receiving treatment for his injuries, Volkov, who fled Russia several years ago to escape arrest, called the assault a typical “gangster’s greeting” from Putin. “We’ll keep working,” he said. “And we will not surrender.”

This weekend, no matter how predictable the results of the ballot may be, they will present Navalny’s allies with their best chance to put his political strategy into action. The ultimate goal he described in his prison letters is for Russia to hold free elections, and enough of them for democracy to take hold over time.

[Jitendra Hydonus]

MMMmmm..., no wonder that he was persecuted as public enemy #1

Yea it’s a paradox of nature that some ‘enemies ‘ are safer kept alive then murdered.

[Jitendra Hydonus]

MMMmmm..., no wonder that he was persecuted as public enemy #1

Yea it’s a paradox of nature that some ‘enemies ‘ are safer kept alive then murdered.

Interestingly enough I had a dream last nite and in the dream I was walking along a dirt road and there was this huge bear 🐻 (Russia) and the bear had some kind of animal against a wired fence ( another territory? ) strangling it. I observed  it and realized there was not much I could do about it without facing terrible consequences myself. However I was attempting to leave the situation but continued to have flashbacks of it as if I was jumping back in a film and it was quite horrifying. Eventually I did pull myself away from the situation.

There is one thing most important to remember about the murder of a Navalny or Jesus Christ; killing righteous men only increase their legitimacy. And my dream only seemed to show me the total barbarism of humans that live out animal lives. In some cases some humans are so brutal that they return to being animals again in their next lives.

[Jitendra Hydonus]

Russian voters, answering Navalny’s call, protest Putin’s forever rule
MOSCOW — On the final day of a presidential election with only one possible result, Russians protested Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian hold on power by forming long lines to vote against him at noon Sunday — answering the call of opposition leader Alexei Navalny who had urged the midday action before dying suddenly in prison last month.

The “Noon Against Putin” protest, with voters forming queues outside polling stations in major cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, was a striking — if futile — display of solidarity and dissent designed to counteract the Kremlin’s main message — that Putin is a legitimate president commanding massive support.

Many polling stations in Moscow were deathly quiet on Sunday morning, but long lines appeared at exactly 12 p.m. — despite authorities sending mass text messages warning people against participating in “extremist” actions and in the face of severe repression of dissent since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which has resulted in hundreds of arrests.

Navalny, who had long crusaded for free and fair elections in Russia and was blocked from running for president in 2018, had urged Russians to vote against Putin at noon Sunday. It turned out to be Navalny’s final political act before his death. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, has accused Putin of ordering his killing, and many Western leaders have said they hold Putin responsible. The Kremlin rejects the allegations.

Many voters also posted photographs of their spoiled ballots with protest slogans such as “Navalny is my president,” “No to war, no to Putin,” and “Putin is a murderer.”

https://apple.news/AhNF4uO0wRByhuxJd-a8UeA

[Jitendra Hydonus]

Russian Orthodox Church suspends priest who prayed at Navalny's grave

https://apple.news/AcvFC4lm1RrSmgbpWvNUOHg

Summary

Priest led memorial service 40 days after Navalny died
No reason given by Church for punishing him
Future to be decided after three years of 'penance'
Other priests disciplined for opposition to war

A Russian Orthodox priest who led a memorial service last month at the grave of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been suspended from clerical duties and ordered to serve three years of "penance".

Dmitry Safronov has prayed several times at the Moscow grave of Navalny and conducted a service there on March 26 to mark 40 days since Navalny's death in an Arctic penal colony.

His suspension was announced by the Moscow Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, which said he would be demoted to the role of psalm-reader.

No reason was stated for the punishment, the latest in a series that the Church has imposed on priests deemed sympathetic to the opposition or not sufficiently supportive of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Navalny, who was 47 when he died and who had been in jail since 2021, was the vocal face of resistance within Russia to what he and his supporters said was Putin’s increasingly authoritarian and corrupt rule. He had been serving three prison sentences amounting to more than 30 years on charges he and his supporters said were fabricated.

Navalny was detained after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had recovered from what German doctors said was poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve agent, Novichok. The U.S. government and independent investigators blamed his poisoning on the Kremlin.

His death came months after he had skipped a series of court dates and appeared to have gone missing, only to turn up at a prison colony known as the Polar Wolf, in the remote Arctic region of Yamalo-Nenets, a bitingly cold, highly isolated and difficult area to reach.

In December, he surfaced on social media and flashed his typically acerbic humor, telling his supporters: “I am your new Santa Claus.” _---Wall Street Journal