[photo] Police officers detain a woman who laid flowers for Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg
Police officers detain a woman who laid flowers for Alexei Navalny at the Memorial to Victims of Political Repression in St. Petersburg, Russia on Friday, Feb. 16, 2024.
Russian authorities say that Alexei Navalny, the fiercest foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests, died in prison. He was 47. (AP Photo)
In a 2007 pro-gun rights video, Navalny presents himself as a “certified nationalist” who wants to exterminate “flies and cockroaches” – while bearded Muslim men appear in cutaways. He whips out a gun and shoots an actor wearing a keffiyeh who tried to “attack” him.
Yeah maybe overt Russian white nationalists shouldn't be revered and their supporters shouldn't be given the right to freedom of expression.
Im not sure how i feel about that, and this might be an unpopular take, but does everyone need an absolutely untarnished past to be able to be recognized for something? Or can we just accept that while not a perfect person, he is a pretty decent figurehead for anti-putinism?
"He has never apologized for his earliest xenophobic videos or his decision to attend the Russian March. At the same time, he has adopted increasingly left-leaning economic positions and has come out in support of the right to same-sex marriage. This strategy of adopting new positions—without ever explicitly denouncing old ones—is probably the reason the suspicion of ethno-nationalism continues to shadow Navalny."
I personally don't have really have opinion either way but was curious.