NOTE: To avoid any confusion, it is important to understand that the premise of this article is not that Russian intelligence works side-by-side with the liberal “opposition”, which Navalny is seemingly the figurehead of, but rather that the Kremlin creates hand-crafted framework for the “opposition” to manoeuvre within – kind of like sheep inside a pen. In other words, the Kremlin does what it can to keep the “opposition” alive, whilst any assassination threats stem from Navalny’s own liberal circle.
Special status
It would seem that so much has been said, written, and even filmed about the Russian opposition that there is virtually nothing to add. The anamnesis is already clear: a fierce hatred of Russia and its citizens, grovelling in front of the west, a sincere love for sybaritism and western grants, and a desperate dislike for any socially useful activity. Add to this the painfully inflated sense of self-importance and distilled arrogance and get a portrait of the average liberal “fighter against the regime”.
And this fight must take place without fail in the most comfortable conditions with a mandatory three meals a day (preferably more often, split-up, health promotion, and all that, you know) and at least two holidays a year with the whole family somewhere far from their native shores, preferably near the warm sea and, of course, at someone else’s expense. Well, if, more than expectations, the intense fight “for everything good and against everything bad” suddenly takes away the last health of another public opinion leader, then he should not be treated anywhere, but only in the Berlin Charité clinic.
Recently, one of our most vociferous oppositionists, Mr Navalny, became ill. At the time of writing, he is still in a coma in the intensive care unit, in the same German clinic. What happened to him, no one can say for sure yet (or does not want to). The west launched its usual broken record about the “bloody regime” that poisoned a prominent politician and “direct competitor”; witty bloggers recalled Navalny’s passion for various excesses and abundant libations with dubious people; doctors, both ours and German, cook the brains of the average person with hard to pronounce terms, stubbornly unwilling to explain in a simple way what actually happened.
Well, the situation is sad, and as a person not angry by nature, I sincerely wish Aleksey a speedy recovery. I myself do not believe in the story of “poisoning”, regardless of who they are trying to present as the poisoner. But at the same time, I can’t help but note that all this, let’s say, set of circumstances seriously “stinks”. And it stinks, I’m sorry, not of a mythical “deadly poison from the secret laboratories of the KGB” (only a completely brainwashed imbecile can believe in such a thing), but of deliberate attention, sincere trepidation, and downright paternal concern with which the Russian authorities treated the fate of the ordinary, I would even say common, citizen of our vast Motherland.
No, this is probably the way it should be, this is how the state should take care of its citizens, but for some reason it prefers to rush to the aid of exclusively the very same public opinion leader from the opposition with such zeal and diligence. It turns out that they have a different status from other citizens. Strange, isn’t it?
Why is there such a special attitude towards Navalny and those like him in every sense? Why do they close their eyes to their offences with enviable regularity, and the maximum that they face after more disorder during an unauthorised rally is a light telling off from law enforcement?
Why is a person who is permanently charged under an article [of the Criminal Code – ed] or under investigation free to leave the Russian Federation whenever they want, and no one even has the idea to prevent them? While if any of us tried to make such a feint with our ears we would have already been tied up by the bailiffs and politely explained that the status of “suspect” does not allow us such liberties in moving. Why does an able-bodied citizen who officially works nowhere, without hiding, live in a luxury rented apartment in Moscow, regularly visits world resorts, and our now much-vaunted tax service has no questions for them?
Night light for liberal moths
Is it because the authorities are really afraid of him/them? Such an explanation, of course, can amuse the soul of a homegrown liberal or a western politician of average quality, who does not understand a damn thing, and does not want to understand these “damned Russians”, but any unbiased observer will not be satisfied with such an absurd explanation for the simple reason that it is nonsense.
Our opposition, whether it be systemic, which everyone is talking about, but no one has seen it, whether it be non-systemic, which sometimes conducts noisy performances in the centre of the capital, but beyond the MKAD, its influence with the speed of a sent text message is close to zero, can only frighten pigeons in the park, where it decides to hold another senseless flash mob.
No, that’s not the point here. Mr. Navalny and his comrades are very much needed by our government, and it is desirable that they are healthy and rosy, and not pale and sick. The question is ― why? The answer is not as complicated as it might seem.
Navalny is a kind of liberal night light, luring to its dim light, like moths from the impenetrable darkness, all dissatisfied, warped, and mentally labile passionaries.
Otherwise, what a task it would be for the intelligence agencies to try to track and control all potential Maidanists in the country! Judging by the last two Moscow City Duma elections, in Moscow alone there are such freaks, “to spite grandmother”, voting for the brawler, lover of a glamorous life and affordable women, Ilya Yashin, or for the cutie Lyucya Stein, whose most notable political achievement was an erotic photo session, several hundred thousand, well, you can get tired to chase after them.
Whereas here everything is in full view: in public, in chats, in Instagram subscriptions and other YouTubers. But as it’s said, it’s not limited to only Navalny. For even greater coverage of the audience, there is, mind you, with the money of the largest state concern, i.e., in fact, with our money, a whole radio station – “Echo of Moscow“, which is led by another such liberal “night light” Aleksey Vedeniktov. However, this is already a different scale, this is no longer a lone lamp in the night, but a whole liberal beacon.
I have no direct grounds to say that Navalny or Venediktov, to put it mildly, cooperate with the Russian intelligence agencies, but the world, and especially Russian, historical experience inexorably leads to this conclusion. Moreover, according to highly knowledgeable experts, at least 30% of the employees of the so-called Anti-corruption Fund of Navalny work for the “bureau”.
Along the path of Gapon
I remember that there was in our history a certain Georgy Apollonovich Gapon, also a “regime shaker” and a fighter for people’s rights, who regularly received assistance at the cash register of the Special Section of the Police Department. It was he, a young priest at that time, who in October 1902 was transferred to St. Petersburg and appointed head of the Special Department by Sergey Zubatov, who decided to solicit him to give lectures in specially organised working circles.
Very funny fact: after getting to know Gapon and having an introductory conversation with him, as it is called in professional jargon, Zubatov came to the conclusion that in matters of politics and the labour movement, Georgy Apollonovich was a very “raw man”, in fact plasticine, from which, having with a certain skill, anything can be sculpted. This, in fact, is what the first assistant to Zubatov, a certain Sokolov, was engaged in.
In the process of comprehending the “science of leadership”, the future “leader of the people’s opposition” attended working meetings and studied the literature that Zubatov carefully provided him with. The student was smart, soon moved to first place, and acquired a great influence on the minds of ordinary workers, and so much so that after less than a year of his training, in the summer of 1903, he was already giving lectures to his listeners “on the history of the revolutionary movement”. Zubatov himself was proud of his pupil and had high hopes for him.
“Father, we are doing a great job”, he said, estimating his “creation”, “he has plenty of energy. He is passionate about his work, and he can do a lot of good”.
And everything would be fine, but in August 1903, after a personal quarrel with the then Minister of Internal Affairs Vyacheslav Konstantinovich von Plehve, Zubatov was forced to resign, and Gapon, in fact, was left without a supervisor. Unfortunately, such an oversight by the Russian Empire’s secret services turned into the well-known Bloody Sunday of January 9th 1905.
Then everything was even “more fun”. A few days after the tragic events, Gapon escaped from St. Petersburg and not without adventures crossed the Russian-German border in what is now Lithuania. Then he took a ride along the traditional route of any Russian oppositionist: Berlin, Geneva, London – where he always advocated the speedy destruction of the autocracy and even wrote an open letter to the sovereign Emperor demanding to abdicate the throne. Later, longing for his Motherland, Gapon moved to Helsingfors (Helsinki) and a few months later, being all this time in an illegal situation, returned to Russia. But as he returned, the Russian Prime Minister Count Witte, instead of arrest, offered him a deal, as long he did not interfere with what was happening in the country at that time and did not provoke an already violent revolutionary protest. Gapon agreed to the deal, went back to Europe, and went out of his way to criticise the revolutionary movement and praise Witte’s policies. “Gapons” – they are all like that – “principled and incorruptible” …
So, why this excursion into history? Because of the fact that for more than a 100 years, little has changed. The current “loudmouthed leaders” of the liberal party are very useful to the government, which is not only not going to prosecute them, even under the law, but in addition creates the most favourable conditions for them, in every possible way protecting them from any righteous indignation of patriots/statesmen. The most important thing is not to leave these mutineers without a tactful leadership, because they may foolishly mess up.
It’s just ridiculous to think about “poisoning”! They will blow the dust off them for the rest of their lives and protect them as they will never protect any of us. The example of “Priest Gapon”, who has long become a household name in Russia, is very characteristic. And his direct historical heir Aleksey Anatolyevich Navalny, clearly following the long-trodden path of the “dispatched Cossack” [spy – ed] should once again carefully read the biography of his prototype. Georgy Gapon was killed by the same revolutionaries as himself, in fact by like-minded people. Here’s what the dry Wikipedia lines say about it:
“The murder took place on March 28th (April 10th) 1906 in the suburb of St. Petersburg, the dacha village of Ozerki. None of the murderers were arrested or brought to trial. The initiated investigation did not lead to any results and was closed a few years later. The materials of the investigative case remained unpublished. It is known that the main suspect in the investigation was a member of the party of social revolutionaries, engineer Pyotr Moiseevich Rutenberg. A few years after the murder, in 1909, Rutenberg released a statement in which he admitted that he had committed the murder of Gapon on behalf of the Central Committee of the socialist-revolutionary party.”
So, dear fans of looking for the “hand of the Kremlin” in everything, calm down and take a closer look around. And if you hear again somewhere about the desire of the “bloody regime” to kill another “Gapon”, it is better to look for potential murderers among the associates of the alleged sacral victim. Extinguishing the much-needed opposition lamp of the government is clearly inconvenient, but to use its death to incite a “popular” protest is exactly what is needed…
So get well, Aleksey Anatolyevich, get well…
Aleksey Belov
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