HASlexei Navalny did not die for nothing. The courage of thousands of Russian citizens who defied fear, intimidation and a brutal police force, Friday 1er March, to attend his funeral in Moscow, showed that Vladimir Putin’s regime has not succeeded in completely discarding the ideals for which the opposition had given its life.
However, the authorities left no stone unturned to prevent this funeral from gathering, given the difficulties faced in recovering the body of the mother of Alexei Navalny, who died in detention at the age of 47. Until ‘the impossibility of finding a room in Moscow where his coffin would have been kept. Although his parents were there, his widow, his two children and his brother, forced into exile, were not able to attend the funeral. Rituals were kept to a minimum.
Much of the crowd was unable to enter the church or cemetery. What is important for these simple citizens is to show their solidarity with a democratic activist by their presence who has been subjected to a policy of repression of a magnitude not seen in Russia for a long time. The slogans, “Not for war”, “Putin, the killer”, “Russia will be free”They have left no mystery around their opinion on this food.
There were many more – more than two hundred thousand – who tuned in to Navalny’s organization’s YouTube channel to follow the progress of the funeral. The effect of repression is undeniable: at the funerals of murdered opponents, the size of the crowd, the only form of demonstration that is still possible, is increasingly reduced. But, despite all his efforts, even Vladimir Putin has not succeeded in eliminating dissent.
No sign of opening
The master of the Kremlin, however, went so far as to take care to eliminate in the presidential election an innocuous candidate, Boris Nadezhdin, who managed to collect more than a hundred thousand signatures against the war. Ukraine. Two weeks before his almost certain re-election to a fifth term at the head of Russia, which he has ruled for a quarter of a century, Mr. Putin is raising signs of toughening up.
This statement of his strength and his toughness is equally significant in his foreign policy. The state of the nation delivered by the Russian head of state on Thursday February 29 gave him the opportunity to repeat that Russia is on the road to victory in Ukraine. For him, the result of this large-scale war, which he has been fighting on his own initiative, with difficulty, for two years, and for which he had to mobilize the entire Russian industry, can only be military. Despite their declarations in favor of “conversation” With the United States, Moscow is giving no indication of openness to possible negotiations. Its war aims have not changed: except for the alleged “Denazification” Which is a fantasy, it’s about the pure and simple conquest of Ukraine, denying its existence as a state.
In his speech, Mr. Putin raised the threat of nuclear conflict, “Which means the destruction of all civilization”, if Western countries increase their support for Ukraine. Faced with the threats of a despot whose destructive role is, of course, increasingly aggressive, the only response remains firmness.
