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The poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny highlights his political activities. The Kremlin apparently feels threatened by its attempts to break its monopoly of power, for example in Novosibirsk.
In his latest YouTube video for the moment, Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny stands on the banks of the Ob River in Novosibirsk and tells what needs to be done to break the Kremlin’s power in cities and regions. Russia’s third-largest city, along with Tomsk, was one of the stops on Navalny’s trip two weeks ago, which dramatically ended his poisoning and emergency hospitalization in Omsk. The film shows, among other things, how members of the United Russia Kremlin party city are building entire urban districts with poor-quality unfinished prefabricated buildings on the ground; There is still a hot water shortage a year and a half after residents have moved in, and the elevators are only gradually being installed. The management of the buildings is also in the hands of local moguls, who live in luxurious villas on the other side of these arid neighborhoods.
Novosibirsk special case
It is a typical investigation conducted by your Anticorruption Foundation. But it should have a direct political impact: In the “capital of Siberia”, Navalny’s team has ready an alternative to construction and real estate companies that exploit their political position without worrying about the concerns of voters. 32 candidates led by Navalny’s husband in Novosibirsk, Sergei Boiko, have formed a coalition. They want to change the majority in the city parliament in the next regional elections in their favor. A year ago, Boiko had unsuccessfully applied for the position of mayor, but at least he achieved second place.
Alexei Navalny and his colleague Kira Jarmysch pose for a selfie in Tomsk on August 20. Soon after, Navalny had to be hospitalized for poisoning.
The attack on Navalny surprised everyone, both the candidates and the many volunteers involved in the campaign and with whom the politician met during his stay in the city two weeks ago. However, the mood at the headquarters of the “Novosibirsk Coalition 2020” is not cloudy. Helpers come and go, interested citizens come. Some volunteers came from other cities to support the electoral campaign. What candidate Kirill Levtschenko, who belongs to Navalny’s staff in Novosibirsk, says applies to all of them: Anger over conditions in Russia and those in power has only increased.
At the same time, the latest news from Berlin that Navalny was deliberately poisoned with a chemical warfare agent from the “Novitschok” group came as no surprise. “It was clear to me from the beginning that the order came from Putin, that it was not just a drug from the pharmacy and that the secret services had to be behind,” says Levchenko. And for Igor Gavrilenko, another candidate, it shows that no one can feel safe anymore. Others, like local journalist and candidate Pyotr Manjachin, are more relaxed, but no less concerned: he sees it as an absolutely logical development of the Russian regime. But the procedure has now reached a new level by openly poisoning political opponents.
Novosibirsk shows why Navalny poses a double threat to the powerful people of Russia. On the one hand, it casts a harsh light on the elite’s enrichment scheme and thus on the hypocrisy of those who constantly claim that thanks to Vladimir Putin there are no longer any oligarchs in Russia. It also exposes those who preach patriotism but prefer to stay abroad. On the other hand, since his attempt to participate in the 2018 presidential elections, which was prevented by the politicized judiciary, he has spread the structure of a political party with his “Navalnys staff” throughout the country. This was successful, although registration has also been denied for years.
The “smart vote” as a threat
In Novosibirsk, many independent candidates affiliated with Boiko managed to register and run as a kind of informal movement, despite many obstacles. They want to show that political changes are possible. However, this is the exception. In the summer of a year ago, almost no independent had registered for elections to the Moscow city parliament, apparently on instructions from above. This had not only led to a wave of protest demonstrations that irrevocably dissolved and resulted in criminal penalties for a few randomly selected participants.
Navalny also successfully tested a model called “Smart Voting” at the time. His team issued a recommendation for each constituency as to which of the admitted candidates, mostly from the ranks of the semi-official “system opposition,” would have the best chance of winning against the respective candidate from the Kremlin party. It was even possible to take the seat of some local United Russia political heavyweights in Moscow. The strategy is controversial among some other opposition politicians. But he hijacked the officially tolerated “opposition parties” and undermined the monopoly of power.
An unscrupulous regime
This year’s regional elections will take place under different circumstances. Even after the seemingly rigged constitutional vote in July, the opposition failed to organize a broad protest, not just because of the pandemic’s restrictions. At the same time, residents of Khabarovsk in the Far East have stubbornly taken to the streets for two months to demonstrate against the arrest of their governor. For the Kremlin, the regional elections are a test of the elections to the State Duma a year from now. Navalny’s “smart voting” strategy could threaten the absolute majority of United Russia, something the leadership will not tolerate. Since the constitutional vote, the internal political environment in Russia has become even harsher and more unforgiving: the authoritarian regime has less and less scruples about flaunting its true form.
This can also be seen now after a German specialized laboratory discovered that Navalny was poisoned with a chemical warfare agent. The Russian authorities are making fun of themselves by trying to blacken the Germans, but they don’t care. Regardless of whether the attack on Navalny occurred in the knowledge of Putin or in the anticipated obedience of structures close to the secret service: it reveals that there are no longer limits in Russia for violence against political opponents.
