HASlexei Navalny did not die for nothing. The courage of thousands of Russian citizens who defied fear, intimidation and a grotesque police force, Friday 1er March, to attend his funeral in Moscow, showed that Vladimir Putin’s regime has not succeeded in completely ousting the ideals for which the opponent gave his life.
The authorities had, however, spared no effort to prevent this funeral from giving rise to a gathering, from the difficulties encountered by the mother of Alexeï Navalny, who died in detention at the age of 47, on February 16, to recover his body, until ‘to the impossibility of finding a room in Moscow where his coffin could have been held. Although his parents were there, his widow, his two children and his brother, forced into exile, were not able to participate in the funeral. The religious ceremony was kept to a minimum.
The majority of the crowd was unable to access either the church or the cemetery. The important thing for these simple citizens was to demonstrate through their presence their solidarity with the democratic activist who was the victim of a policy of repression of an intensity that Russia has not seen for a long time. The slogans that were raised, “No to war”, “Putin, assassin”, “Russia will be free”have left no mystery surrounding their opinion on this diet.
Many more – more than two hundred thousand – were those who connected to the YouTube channel of Navalny’s organization to follow the progress of the funeral. The effect of the repression is indisputable: at the funerals of murdered opponents, the size of the crowd, the only form of demonstration still possible, is increasingly reduced. But, despite all his efforts, Vladimir Putin has not succeeded in eliminating dissent either.
No sign of opening
The master of the Kremlin, however, went so far as to take care to eliminate a candidacy that was however innocuous in the presidential election, that of Boris Nadezhdine, who had managed to gather more than a hundred thousand signatures on his opposition to the war in Ukraine. Two weeks before his almost certain re-election for a fifth term at the head of Russia, over which he has reigned for a quarter of a century, Mr. Putin is increasing the signs of hardening.
This assertion of its power and its rigidity is just as notable in its foreign policy. The state of the nation speech that the Russian head of state delivered on Thursday February 29 gave him the opportunity to repeat that Russia was on the path to victory in Ukraine. For him, the outcome of this large-scale war, which he has been waging with difficulty, on his own initiative, for two years, and for which he had to mobilize the entire Russian industry, can only be military. . Despite his declarations in favor of a “dialogue” with the United States, Moscow is giving no sign of openness to possible negotiations. Its war objectives have not changed: beyond an alleged “denazification” which is a fantasy, it is about the pure and simple conquest of Ukraine, whose existence as a state he denies.
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, precisely, is increasingly aggressive, the only response remains that of firmness.