Both in Life and Death Navalny Was a Stinging Rebuke To Putin's Totalitarianism
We should make sure that in America brave citizens never have to make such big sacrifices to hold a tyrant accountable
The recent death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, in a prison camp where he was held on bogus charges, comes at a turning point both internationally and domestically. In his death as in his life, Navalny serves as a warning to the world and as a beacon showing us the way forward.
Authoritarianism has been rising over the past decade in its reach, its power, and its influence as a global alternative to liberal democracy. The authoritarians appeal to some form of traditional values tailored to a particular national setting—whether Christian, Hindu, Islamic, nationalist, or some other combination. (The most recent swerve back to authoritarianism is in Indonesia.) Some of those traditions, such as the importance of family, have obvious appeal, while others summon a darker side of the human soul, such as ethnic and religious hatred or a fear of nonconforming lifestyles. But the authoritarians claim that we need this kind of support for traditional values, enforced by a strongman, to counter the anomie of a supposedly decadent liberalism.
This is not a very convincing narrative. See Tucker Carlson’s comically credulous reporting from a Moscow grocery store, where everything from coin-operated shopping carts (the mark of an impoverished, low-trust society) to low prices (caused by the collapse of the ruble relative to the dollar) is somehow converted into a selling point in favor of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule. Yet this viewpoint has many more supporters than it ought to.
Navalny’s death gives the lie to all of it.
Putin Plunders His Own People
The specific cause of Navalny’s death is not known and may never be known—whether it is poisoning, medical neglect, or complications from the previous poisoning of Navalny by state operatives in 2020. Regardless, the sudden death of an otherwise healthy 47-year-old is the responsibility of the regime that sent him to a remote penal colony for daring to criticize Putin. This reveals the cold, hard reality of authoritarianism, which is actually built around a strongman leader’s ability to kill his critics with impunity.
More broadly, consider what Navalny did that made him a target of the regime. He investigated corruption and revealed the vast, opulent scale of wealth Putin and his cronies have looted from the Russian people. He made documentaries about Putin’s massive palaces and his cronies’ Mediterranean mega-yachts—in a country so poor a significant percentage of the population still doesn’t have indoor plumbing.
Navalny laid bare what students of authoritarianism will tell you is the real essence of an authoritarian regime: the looting of the country. Russia’s leaders crack down on political dissent so that no one can hold them to account for engorging themselves with billions of dollars siphoned from the nation’s mines and oil wells.
This is a warning not just for Russia but for Europe, and especially for the places Russia is trying to bring under its control. It is a warning that they, too, are scheduled to be ruthlessly looted by a small political elite—and anyone who complains will be murdered.
It underscores the stakes for Ukrainian resistance to Russia’s invasion. It is not a mere border dispute, but a contest to determine whether everyone in Ukrainian society will be subject to the predation of a criminal gang. It is a further reminder for the Baltic States, as if any were needed, and most definitely for the Poles. In his recent interview with Carlson, Putin gave a long recitation of Russia’s historical grievances, and he focused particularly on Poland, a centuries-old rival with Russia for regional dominance.
Authoritarian Immunity
This is also a warning for those of us in the United States. No, Russia is not likely to try to take back Alaska any time soon. But it is setting an example that at least one political faction in this country would like to emulate. The killing of Navalny followed quickly on the heels of arguments made by Donald Trump and his lawyers demanding that an American president be given lifelong immunity from prosecution for all crimes, up to and including the murder of his political rivals.
Asked by the judge in one case whether the immunity they claim would shield “a president who ordered SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival,” Trump’s lawyer had to admit that it would. Trump himself doubled down by comparing himself to a “rogue cop,” who needs a free hand to impose “law and order.”
This is a reminder of what is at stake, not just in one presidential election, but in a series of court rulings and other official actions this year that will set precedents for the future. Can a rogue leader ever be held to account?
This also is a warning of what happens when we go down the road to authoritarianism: the breakdown of the rule of law turns into a war of all against all, and particularly a constant war waged by the state against its own citizens. This is already the reality in many countries, from Iran to Russia, and Navalny is just the latest casualty of that war.
You’re Not Allowed To Give Up
In the latest iteration of its war on its citizens, the Russia government sent its goons to arrest people for laying flowers at a makeshift memorial to Navalny. That shows us why Navalny is a warning—but also a beacon. Keep this image in your mind: a bunch of tough guys afraid of flowers.
Navalny anticipated this. When asked what message he had for supporters if he didn’t make it, Navalny said, “If they decided to kill me, then it means we are incredibly strong.” Navalny wasn’t killed because he was irrelevant. Quite the opposite.
Bear in mind Navalny’s extraordinary courage. He went back to Russia after being poisoned in a brazen assassination attempt and deliberately faced the likelihood of arrest. He was a man willing to die for his country. And he approached it by laughing, joking, and mocking his jailers—he once dubbed Putin “Vladimir the Underpants Poisoner”—until the very end. He achieved his goal to this extent: He has exposed the pretenses of authoritarianism for the entire world to see.
The point here is not that I am calling on you to show the same level of courage as Alexei Navalny. The point is that you don’t have to. None of us do. Navalny showed that courage and honesty are weapons against authoritarianism, and we are called upon to exercise far less bravery than he was. So we have no excuse not to.
As Navalny told his supporters, “You’re not allowed to give up.” If the death of Navalny shows us how terrible the consequences can be once you let authoritarians gain power, either at home or in a war of conquest halfway around the world, it should be that much more of a spur to resist them early when the stakes are lower.
A hero like Navalny sets a standard of courage we should be ashamed not to follow—particularly because it is so much easier for us.
A version of this article originally appeared in Discourse. It is reprinted here with permission.
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It's also vital to point out that Carlson has since gone on to claim that "there is censorship everywhere" - which, while true in the most irrelevant and absolutist sense, is in fact a massive mischaracterization of reality in which "censorship" in the US means being denied the ability to have your ideas widely distributed by a private enterprise, even as "censorship" Russia means spending years languishing in prison and/or just being murdered in the street.
Carlson takes advantage of the freedoms he is afforded by his nation to mislead the citizens of same into the delusion that other nations, where he would not have similar freedoms, are somehow similar in their approach to the curtailing of speech. It's really important that the fact that we're talking about a difference in KIND and not in degree is what's on the table here and Carlson needs to hear from every honest source that he's absolutely full of shit and that we know that he's full of shit.
Very true.
Until the Bloated Yam, Xi, and Putin divide up the world between them, when Navalny will become an "unperson."