With many publications declaring the death of Russian opposition diplomat Alexei Navalny as the creation of a martyr however are they missing the point?
Navalny was no doubts Putin’s most significant challenger and thus as the saying goes “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” however the west’s favourable view of Navalny often comes from turning a blind eye to many his real-world policies and beliefs.
The TIME Magazine stated before his death that: “Jail is perhaps the last place Putin wants him to be ,since that would make him a martyr. He is probably the only real position out of Russians 143 million inhabitants”
The so-called ‘martyr’ has been accused of Xenophobia since 2007 from comments that he had never since retracted; an example of his troubled views includes his likening between immigrants and cockroaches and his beliefs that Crimea “de facto belongs to Russia”. Not only has western media often failed to report these views they also fail to report his nationalist alignments inside Russia.
Navalny was often spotted at alt-right or nationalist rally’s not only gaining support for his own political cause but showing support for in his own views on ridding Russia of “Islamism” – a view that he spoke publicly on until as late as 2015.
So, was Navalny a martyr or even a positive candidate for Russia it’s hard to say but under the veil of bias from western media it’s clear that Navalny was not an easy figure to understand. Going forward the west should certainly be careful who we champion as the next leader of Russia.