Russian journalist Connected to Navalny Detained.

Last Friday, a Russian journalist who filmed the last video of Alexi Navalny was detained in Moscow, and according to a report by The Guardian, Russian authorities accused Antonia Forskaya of being part of an “Extremist Organization” which the Russian government uses to refer to Navalny’s organization. According to an article in the AP, she is accused of producing and editing videos for Navalny’s organization. In an even more worrying development, two other journalists, Alexandra Astakhova and Anastasia Musatova, were detained simply for going to visit Forskaya while she was imprisoned. Given recent events, I fear for Forskaya and all of the other brave Russian journalists, both inside and outside of the country, who are exposing the corruption embedded within Putin’s regime.

Navalny pronounced dead by Putin’s Regime.

(A disclaimer for this article: I was at an event this morning held by the U.S Institute of Peace (USIP), an international relations think tank here in Washington DC, discussing the future of Russia post Putin).

The Russian prison authorities announced this morning that Alexi Navalny, the prominent critic of President Putin, was found dead in his cell. It has been reported that as of yesterday, Navalny was displaying his usual sense of humor, which is remarkable considering his situation. It has been well-known that Navalny was gravely ill and was being denied proper healthcare by the Russian government. According to a report by the Washington Post, fears for Navalny grew after he was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Russia after recovering in Germany from an attempt on his life by the use of Novichok, a banned nerve agent. The response to Navalny’s death has been swift, according to a report by the New York Times. Navalny’s wife strode into the conference room where the Munich Security Conference (a well-known gathering of world leaders discussing international security issues) was held. She denounced Putin’s regime, openly reporting those in the audience spellbound. All of this raises the question: why does this matter?

The answer is that it matters a great deal. According to an article in the Post, Navalny was the main figurehead for anti-Putin opposition in Russia and worldwide, leading many protests within the country. However, more importantly, Navalny had a pioneering YouTube channel and organization that focused on the rampant corruption within Putin’s Russia. It is unclear what will happen next; at the event I attended today, several of the panelists stated that it is a fool’s errand to predict what might happen post-Putin and that it is likely that either Putin will have to die or that Ukraine will have to win the war decisively for Putin to be deposed. One can only hope that Navalny’s death, while tragic, can spur a new generation of Russian civil society to take on Putin and that the West will continue to fund Ukraine’s war effort.

A follow-up on Navalny.

Last week Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in a Russian prison camp on extremism charges. According to ABC, Navalny is already in prison on other charges that are politically driven. These charges are related to Navalny’s efforts to expose endemic corruption in the Russian state. According to VOAnews, Russian prosecutors asked for a 20-year sentence. It is abundantly clear that Navalny will never get out of prison and that the Putin regime doesn’t want him to give any opportunities to fuel protests that could bring down Putin.

Another Ally of Navalny Jailed.

A close associate of Alexei Navalny was jailed for nine years on Monday after being found guilty of “extremism” charges. According to ABC News, Vadim Ostanian, who ran the Siberian office of Navalny’s anti-corruption organization, was guilty in the eyes of the Russian state for organizing an extremist community and belonging to a non-profit that, in the words of the Russian government, “infringes on citizens rights.” Al Jazeera reported that last month another ally of Navalny Liliya Chanysheva was also found guilty on similar charges and sentenced to seven years in a Russian penal colony. It is highly likely that, like Navalny, Ostanian will not get the chance to appeal his conviction and will languish in prison. All of this further proves that Russia is a mafia state.

Vladlen Tatarsky and the Rise of Pro-Russian Bloggers.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine last year, a new type of blogger has emerged in Russia. According to a report by CNN, a growing group of Russians are acting as war correspondents despite not having a journalistic background. These bloggers have embedded themselves within Russian units on the front lines in Ukraine and have developed close links to the regular army and the Wagner Group paramilitary group. These bloggers have become a vital source for on-the-ground information about the war, as the Russian Government is notoriously unforthcoming about the actual state of the war. It must also be noted that while all these bloggers are ultranationalists and pro-Putin, they are not afraid to voice their opinion on how the war should be fought.

This is the background to the events that occurred in St Petersburg recently. Vladlen Tatarsky was a prominent member of the military blogging community in Russia. Recently, he received a likeness of himself in the form of a figurine that just so happened to be filled with explosives, killing and injuring many others in a crowded restaurant called Street food bar #1 Cafe. According to a report in the New York Times, Tatarsky was handed the statuette by a woman called Nastya, who was a sculptor, while he was giving a talk to about 100 people. Shortly after the explosion, a woman named Daria Trepova, who, according to Sky News, is a supporter of the jailed anti-corruption activist Alexi Navalny. The moral of this tale appears to be that one should always be careful when accepting suspicious-looking statuettes.