#freenavalny

[tmarshconnors]

Freedom for Alexey Navalny

After reading the article "Alexei Navalny: Russian opposition leader reappears in Arctic penal colony" I had to write this blog.

The world has witnessed the relentless pursuit of justice and democracy by individuals who are willing to stand up against corruption and authoritarianism. One such figure is Alexey Navalny, a prominent Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist. Navalny has been a vocal critic of the Russian government and its leadership, exposing instances of corruption and advocating for political change. However, his efforts to bring about positive change have come at a great personal cost. Currently serving a prison sentence in Russia, Navalny's plight has become a symbol of the ongoing struggle for human rights and freedom in the country.

The Story of Alexey Navalny:

Alexey Navalny rose to prominence through his fearless exposés on corruption within the Russian government. His investigations targeted powerful figures, uncovering embezzlement, fraud, and other illicit activities. Navalny's efforts gained widespread support both domestically and internationally, as people rallied behind his calls for accountability and transparency.

Despite facing numerous legal challenges and attempts to silence him, Navalny continued to be a formidable force for change. His influence reached new heights during the 2020 poisoning incident, where he fell gravely ill after being exposed to a nerve agent. Navalny's recovery and subsequent return to Russia only reinforced his commitment to the fight against corruption and his dedication to a democratic future for his country.

Navalny's arrest in January 2021, upon his return to Russia, sparked global outrage and calls for his immediate release. The charges against him, widely seen as politically motivated, have been condemned by human rights organizations and governments around the world. Many argue that his imprisonment is a clear violation of freedom of speech and a direct assault on political opposition within Russia.

This blog post is a call to action, urging the Russian Federation to release Alexey Navalny and respect the principles of democracy and human rights. It is crucial for the international community to unite in condemning the suppression of dissent and advocating for the freedom of individuals like Navalny who courageously speak out against corruption and injustice.

The international community has a vital role to play in holding the Russian government accountable for its actions. Diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions, and public advocacy can contribute to raising awareness about Navalny's case and pushing for his release. Governments, NGOs, and concerned individuals must work together to ensure that human rights are upheld and that individuals like Navalny can contribute to a more open and democratic society.

The struggle for freedom and democracy is ongoing, and the case of Alexey Navalny is a poignant reminder of the challenges faced by those who dare to speak truth to power. By raising our voices collectively, we can send a powerful message to the Russian government that the world is watching and that the principles of justice and human rights must prevail. It is time to stand in solidarity with Alexey Navalny and all those who strive for a more just and transparent future for Russia and the world.

[mylionheart2]

[edithhaimbergernotebook]

Russia's 2024 Presidential Election Day in Germany

Unter den Linden on the eve of Russian-Berliners' election day. The Navalny memorial is at the left, the Ukraine war memorial at centre, and in the background the quadriga of Brandenburg Gate is silhouetted against the setting sun. Photo by me. All rights reserved.

Russia's presidential elections this weekend were full of no surprises. Vladimir Putin was designated President for another 6-year term, after years of whittling away any rivals for the role.

Freedom in the World Report - 2015: Retroactively for 2014, Russia was ranked 'Not Free' with 23 points. - 2023: Russia is still ranked 'Not Free,' with 13 points. The Freedom in the World Report is released annually by the Freedom House organization, which is based in the United States. The Russian member of parliament Sergei Markov disputed its findings around 15 years ago.

On the ground in Berlin, there were however a few surprises. Ballots were opened there on Sunday.

At around 9:45 a.m., voters had formed a line over 200 metres long, along a building belonging to the largely state-owned Russian airline Aeroflot, where it flanks the Glinkastraße.

The line then turned a corner and went on to a rear entrance of the Russian embassy. A few onlookers filmed the scene with their smartphones and a police van was posted at the Mauerstraße, but no journalists appeared to be there.

Collapsible sign for the Russian elections in Berlin, set up in front of the Aeroflot building at Unter den Linden, just past the white and red fence where security checks were occurring. March 17, 2024. Photo by me. Public domain.

At the corner of Glinkastraße and Unter den Linden there was a gap in the security fence. There a tall security guard was scrutinizing documents, like the red passports of Russian citizens, held by people in the line. Then the voters were let through past the Aeroflot building to the formal landscaped yard.

Three lanes of traffic divide the embassy from the linden trees of the iconic Berlin street Unter den Linden.

Under the still leafless trees, both the Ukrainian war memorial as well as the bouquets, candles, signs and portraits in honour of Russia's dissident Alexei Navalny were quiet.

But the white-blue-white flag of Russia's anti-Ukraine-war movement had been draped around a tree trunk.

In the traffic lanes on the other side of the memorials, men were putting finishing touches on a sound stage.

Groups like the Russian Antiwar Committee and the #freenavalny campaign had organized a live event after 12 p.m.

Хватит войны лжи репрессий Путина

— 'Enough with Putin's war of lies and repression' (Google Translate). Banner for 12 p.m. event opposite the Russian Embassy in Berlin

***

At 11:56 a.m., the line of people waiting to vote had stretched further along the Behrenstraße behind Russia's embassy and turned a corner into the Wilhelmstraße. Police officers kept the intersections clear, but taking these into account the line was 800 m long.

On Unter den Linden, the protestors' programme had begun.

In the gravel area, protestors, passersby, and many journalists were photographing a paper mâché bathtub in the colours of the Ukrainian flag. Red paint, symbolizing the bloodshed of Vladimir Putin's presidency, dripped over the bathtub's sides. Inside it, the figure of Putin scrubbed his toe with a brush.

Flyers, Unter den Linden. March 17, 2024. Photo by me. Public domain unless the group that produced the flyers has intellectual property rights.

In front of the bathtub, a group had set up an open air voting experience that they titled "Taste the Russian 'democracy.'"

The ballots, voting booths, and the glass-sided ballot boxes that had a paper shredder fitted at the top, were all detailed parodies. The ballot boxes were even decorated with a formal eagle emblem.

Passersby laughed as they read and filled out the ballots, which were handed out at white tables.

Parody of a Russian ballot box with shredded mock ballots, Unter den Linden, March 17, 2024. Photo by me. Public domain.

Then they watched as a mock election helper reduced their so-called votes to paper strips through the ballot boxes.

The #freenavalny campaign had also set up tables with posters and other papers.

Protestors and visitors at the scene carried protest signs or the white-blue-white antiwar flag.

One sign said, "Even if you have an election today, you still face a tribunal." Another sign suggested that Vladimir Putin should be in the Hague.

Putin is a killer Not a president He will not stop

— Protest sign, Unter den Linden, March 17, 2024

Protest sign, March 17, 2024. Berlin. Photo by me. All rights reserved.

Defiantly, protestors set up an unofficial street sign with the name "Alexej-Nawalny-Straße."

As well as a petition that has gathered thousands of signatures, Russian protest groups in Berlin also organized a protest on March 6 asking local Berlin authorities to rename the Behrenstraße in honour of Navalny.

*

The scene on Unter den Linden was loud.

Speakers in Russian and German, from groups like the Free Russia Foundation, had begun to address the crowd from the stage in the northern lanes.

The Berlin city politician Ario Mirzaie, of the Green Party, also spoke. He began by telling the crowd that his parents, too, had come from a "dictatorship": Iran.

The crowd chanted slogans like, "Putin ist nicht legitim!" (Putin is not legitimate) in both languages.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who had been imprisoned for years and is now in exile in the UK, would appear later.

Protestors at the stage for the 12 p.m. "Хватит войны лжи репрессий Путина" event opposite the Russian Embassy in Berlin. March 17, 2024. Photo by me. All rights reserved.

*

The Germany-based group Demokrati-Ja had also set up a wall of banners to draw attention to 'Putin's hostages' ("Putins Geiseln").

* Vladimir Kara-Murza, politician. Arrested in 2022 on charges of making treasonous statements about the invasion of Ukraine. *Aleksandra Skochilenko, artist. Imprisoned in 2023 on charges of 'disseminating false information' — protest material against the invasion of Ukraine. *Lilia Chanysheva, politician and associate of Alexei Navalny. Imprisoned in 2023 on charges of extremism. Olga Smirnova, architect and activist. Saurifa Sautijeva, museum staff and protestor. Viktor Shur, artist arrested in 2014 for insulting a police officer and later accused of working with Ukrainian intelligence services. Sarema Musayeva, mother of two activists. Irina Navalnaya, resident of Mariupol accused of terrorism. (Note: This reporter anglicized the German transliterations of some names above. There may be mistakes.)

*

On the streets south of the Russian embassy, the lines of voters were becoming longer and longer.

Since all the presidential candidates on the ballot were allies of Vladimir Putin, the Russian opposition had encouraged voters across Russia to show passive resistance by appearing at the polls at noon.

In Berlin, hundreds of voters did so.

Before 1 p.m., the line peaked at around 1.3 km, counting the intersections. The Glinkastraße up to Behrenstraße, the Behrenstraße up to the Wilhelmstraße, and the Wilhelmstraße up to the Voßstraße. The line reached up the Gertrud-Kolmar-Straße to the Hannah-Arendt-Straße, across the street from the Holocaust memorial.

On the Wilhelmstraße, in front of the restaurant Yakoolza, a young woman who was standing in line estimated she'd been waiting 45 minutes. At the corner of Wilhelmstraße/Voßstraße, another woman said 1 hour.

At the Hannah-Arendt-Straße, two men, who appeared to be Germans, stood at a street sign. They told the Berlin police officers who were guiding the voter line that they were not eligible to vote. But one of them held a handmade cardboard poster with the words "Stop Putin."

Another man who had been standing in line with the Ukrainian flag on a long pole, left shortly after this reporter had arrived.

*

A voter whom this reporter did not see was the widow of Alexei Navalny, Yulia.

She cast a ballot, then approached the press on her way out of the embassy to explain her write-in vote, for her late husband.

Flowers at the improvised Navalny memorial. Unter den Linden. Photo by me. March 9, 2024. All rights reserved.

[thecapitolradar]

Goodbye to my fearless friend, Alexei Navalny

Alexei was a friend to America, too. Read this piece, and get to know who and what we lost when Putin murdered him.

It takes a human to appreciate humanity, I guess; and Mike McFaul paints a picture of our friend, Navalny, that stands in sharp contrast to Putin's cruelty and depravity.

#freenavalny we tweeted when Putin imprisoned our friend. Our prayer has been answered in the saddest way possible.

#RIP Alexei Navalny.

[isacopraxolu]

#Navalny: chiesti #20anni di #reclusione

#tfnews #cronaca #20luglio #esteri #freenavalny #news #processofarsa

[opensmm]

View on Twitter

Алексей Навальный сегодня на заседании суда #freenavalny https://twitter.com/SobolLubov/status/1623714389462290433

[blincheck]

enough lies

IG: blincheckkk

[ef-bme]

The man who laughed in the face of injustice

So on 02.02.20 Moscow City Court performed an unspeakable travesty of justice. They have transformed a suspended sentence, that already expired several times, into a real prison sentence. Alexey Navalny, the main opposition leader, received 2 years and 8 months of prison time, based on the claim that he did not check in with Federal Penitentiary Services and “tried to hide”, thus violating the terms of his parole. Two minor things: first, he was "hiding" in Germany, recovering from GODDAMN POISONING, which basically the whole world knew about; second, this case, the famous “Yves Rocher” fraud case, was already reviewed in the European Court of Human Rights, which declared this case as unreasonable in 2017 and concluded that both Alexey Navalny and his brother Oleg (who got an actual 3.5 year prison sentence in 2014) should receive compensation. And they did receive it, which means even the Russian judicial system had to agree that those charges were bull***t in the first place. Many Russians say it was not Navalny who received the prison sentence, but actually the 144+ million country, as this may be a sign of the new age of shameless political repressions. If they can do this to Navalny, they can do this to anybody. Try to kill you using taxpayer money and put you in jail for surviving. Nevertheless, Alexey still managed to stand strong and even crack a couple of jokes during the court session.

***

Navalny (to his wife): Yulia, they even showed you on TV in my cell. They said you had caused a lot of trouble. Bad girl, I’m so proud of you! [Yulia Navalnaya participated in the anti-government protests on both January 23 and 31, was detained multiple times and was fined RUR 20.000] *** The bailiff asks who’s streaming the trial on YouTube and demands to stop it. Navalny: Me. *** Navalny (to his lawyer Kobzev): I see you’re reading Twitter. Tell me, what they’re posting, I have a Twitter withdrawal. *** When the Judge asked him to introduce himself. Navalny: Well you forgot to introduce yourself, too. *** The Judge: Where do you live? Navalny: Currently, in Detention Center #1. *** The Judge: You may sit. Navalny: I’ve been sitting since 7 am. May I stand? The Judge: You may. *** Navalny: [shows a heart to his wife] The Bailiff: Stop communicating with gestures! *** The Judge announces a 2-hour break. Navalny: Can we send someone to McDonald’s?

***

[The quotes are taken from TVrain Twitter]

***

But the funniest thing is that 20 min BEFORE the Judge announced her decision, pro-Kremlin media Russia Today posted an update on how Navalny’s trial was going, and the url literally said “navalny-oshzhden-na-2.5-goda” (Navalny is sentenced to 2 and a half years). Apparently, those propagandists are secretly fortune tellers. Who knew?

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

Crowds in Tverskaya Square at 14:20, protesting against the imprisonment of Navalny. This is a total PR disaster for President Putin. I hope he and his friends are panicking. 

[tatiananayt]

⚘#FreeNavalny #СвободуНавальному #СвободуАлексеюНавальному #НавальныйЖиви #ОтпуститеНавального #Отпускай #ямынавальный ⚘#СвободуПолитзаключённым 30.10.2021г https://www.instagram.com/p/CVp4XALseY1/?utm_medium=tumblr

[glittery-cutie]

President Putin: Free Aleksei Navalny | Amnesty International

[of-sunshine-and-sea]

I'm hysterical. So pigs kicked people (no matter if they're adult, underage, pregnant or disabled) down and hit them with their legs/truncheons/stun guns, walked over them leaving bruises, broken bones and concussion ON PEACEFUL PROTEST and it's fine, ThEy ArE dOiNg ThEiR jOb apparently, but people who tried to stop them and attacked them back are going to get to jail because oh ah they touched our precious innocent policemen??? The fuck is this shit, I hate this fucking country

[tatiananayat]

#Makhachkala_05_ #Makhachkala_05 #Makhachkala #Махачкала_05_ #Махачкала_05 #Махачкала #весна_05_ #весенние_деньки #весна #весна_05 #весна_ #май_2021 #май_2021 #FreeNavalny #СвободуАлексеюНавальному #НавальныйЖиви https://www.instagram.com/p/CO-3xvFDfez/?igshid=36qp9naj5gsy

[raxtenten]

I think more people need to watch this:

especially since the protests are gaining traction in Russia; it seems that YouTube has blacklisted it because it should be on the trending page with the amount of views (over 80 million views) it has gotten since its release five days ago. I tried searching for it on YouTube but it does not appear in the search results for me.

Please in solidarity watch the documentary to stand with the Russian people and Alexei Navalny. We need to stand against the corruption going on in Russia.

[dangerouskryptonitecolor]

Schluss mit Verbrechen am Menschen!

Helft ihm!!! Er muss freikommen!!! Wie auch alle anderen, die wie er zu unrecht einsitzen!!! Aufhören mit dieser Misanthropen-Politik!!! #FreeNavalny🫵🧟🦹👮����👩🕵🧑😣😖😡🤬😵😵‍💫🤢���💩👎🫰🫳👋🤙👇🖕✍️🦶🦵🦿👁🗣👩‍🏫👩‍💼👩‍🚀👩‍⚖️🦹‍♀️🦹‍♂️🧟‍♀️