A prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, Navalny, 47, spent his final months behind bars as the Russian leader reshaped the country to rally behind his war in Ukraine.
I'm curious why anyone really gives a shit about this, the likelihood this guy was ever gonna me a challenger to Putin at this point is, what? .000000000001%, if that. Surprised I'm seeing as many posts about this as I am.
I think it's because liberals believe he was basically Nelson Mandela who was gonna be freed from prison and turn Russia into a thriving Western democracy. Turns out he was a racist, far-right nationalist who died for nothing 🤷♂️
Ehh, probably <1% of Americans could tell you who Juan Guaido is, but 10% could tell you that Navalny was a political opponent to Putin and probably had some vague belief that Navalny would be the president if Putin didn't imprison him/Russia wasn't so corrupt.
Yup 1% for Devalney and .1% for gaido is more realistic.
Unless you have actively followed south American politics for a long time you aren't going to remeber the minor b plot character that was supposed to be implanted through a half hearted coup.
Western liberals believed that Navalny was the opposition leader to Putin. He was always talked about in media as "the opposition leader". Not "a opposition leader" but specifically "the".
This is important because it frames in people's minds that he was the main opposition. It makes people think of it in a Republican vs Dems way.
This framing is helped by the fact that the communist party is literally NEVER talked about in western media. They don't exist as far as liberals know.