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WYFP: A Cry for a Lost Country [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-15
Alexi Navalny knew he was going to die in prison.
The Russian dissident, politician, muckraker had been exposing corruption in his country for some years and the protests were becoming larger and more worrisome to Putin and his regime.
Getting on that airplane in Germany after surviving an assassination attempt that left him in a coma and requiring months of rehabilitation, he knew he was either going to be arrested at the airport or arrested after getting home. He didn’t even make it thru customs before they hauled him away and sent him on a journey of two years of progressively harsher prisons in Russia.
They kept bringing more bs charges and convicting him as well as taunting him, telling him all this could go away if he just shut up. He refused to stop telling the truth.
Liars will always try to shut up the truth. Which is why it’s so puzzling Russian authorities allowed him to finish writing his book in those last two years of his life. Maybe Putin knew his countrymen would never get a chance to read it, so who cares if the rest of the world reads it? I don’t know.
I finished his memoir, “Patriot” on the friday when Trump and Musk began taking apart our country. I got chills reading it, feeling we are seeing what Putin did in the 1990’s Russia is what Trump is now doing to our country.
The first part of the book is Navalny recounting his life up to his arrest. He had been in college when Putin took over for Boris Yeltsin and was dubious about a KGB agent trying to lead a democracy.
After law school, he took some financial classes and began investing in the large companies that were dividing up the country’s resources so he could request financial records and attend meetings as a shareholder. It didn’t take long to realize the Russian people were getting scammed.
Navalny knew Putin was trying to put the soviet union back together. An ex-KGB agent? a no-brainer. He reminds us that the soviet union lasted 70 years, China, Cuba and North Korea have lasted as long if not longer. If Americans ever get their country back, it will be a hard slog. Many people will give up, especially if they’re able to escape abroad.
Did you know he was half Ukrainian? He grew up partly in Ukraine and spoke the language and you have to wonder if Putin’s “Ukraine derangement syndrome” might have anything to do with Navalny.
He came up with 15 points he wanted people to focus on.
I’m going to condense.
1) Putin has unleashed a war of aggression against Ukraine under ridiculous pretexts and failing to get popular support has to rely on convicts and forcibly mobilized individuals.
2) The real reasons for this war are the political and economic problems within Russia.
3. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been murdered, war crimes have been committed, and cities and infrastructure have been destroyed.
4) (This was written in February 2023) Russia is suffering a military defeat...the ultimate defeat may be delayed but it is inevitable. The combination of aggressive warfare, corruption, inept generals and a weak economy can only result in defeat.
5) Ukraine’s borders were drawn up in 1991. There is nothing to discuss here. Almost all borders in the world are more or less accidental and cause someone discontent. But, in the 21st century, we can’t start wars just to redraw them. Otherwise, the world would sink into chaos. [italics mine]
6) Russia has to leave Ukraine alone to develop as its people want.
7) Together with Ukraine, the US, the UK and the EU, we have to look for acceptable ways to compensate for damage done to Ukraine...one way to achieve this is to pay reparations from Russian oil and gas monies.
8) War crimes have to be investigated.
9) Are Russians imperialistic? Nonsense, Belarus is involved in the war and their people are not imperialistic. They are held captive by a dictator just as Russians are held captive by a dictator.
10) Does Russia need new territories? Russia is a vast country with a shrinking population and rural areas dying out. Imperialism, and the urge to seize territory is the most harmful and destructive path. Once again, the Russian government is destroying our future with its own hands simply to make our country look bigger on a map. [italics mine]
11) For Russia, the legacy of this war will be a whole tangle of complex, and almost unsolvable problems.
12) After the war, we have to reimburse Ukraine for all the damage done.
13) We need to dismantle the Putin regime and its dictatorship thru general elections and convoking a constitutional assembly.
14) We need to establish a parliamentary Republic.
15) Recognizing our history and traditions, we need to be a part of Europe and follow the European path of development. We have no other choice, nor do we need any.
Trump and the Republicans are following the Putin playbook.
One more thing I would like to point out from the book, in the March 8 entry (International Women’s Day) Navalny writes he hoped one day to see a woman president, a woman prime minister and woman minister of defense.
Alexi Navalny died in IK 3 “special regime” prison on 16 February 2024.
Rest in Power.
And WYFP?
Putin’s Palace on youtube.
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