A man was buried in it Russia. It was called Alexei Navalny. Under adverse circumstances, in extreme cold, under threat of reprisals and arrests, A crowd was present at the funeral rites for the final tribute to the one who exposed the Kremlin's corruption and tyranny and dared to challenge the Kremlin's power Wladimir PutinHe paid for his courage with his own life.
The enemy's death was expected. Putin had already ordered his poisoning in 2020. The CNNproduced film “Navalny,” which won the 2023 Oscar for Best Documentary, brings the details of this assassination closer, contextualizing the poisoning episode and showing a behindthescenes look at the politician’s life up until his arrest.
Even though he knew he would certainly be arrested and his life would be in danger again, Navalny decided to leave Germany and return to Russia as soon as his health was restored. Immediately after landing in Moscow, he was arrested and subjected to cold, hunger and oppression for three years in the “Arctic Wolf” colony, a remote and inaccessible prison in Siberia where the temperature rises to 40 C in winter .
His arrest sparked a wave of protests, followed by harsh repression in which about 1,600 people were arrested. The Russians were courageous on this occasion and also on this March 1, 2024, when they sang in front of the church where his body was buried: “You were not afraid, and we are not afraid.”
Which side are we on?
The free world is increasingly worried about Putin. The tyrant has already shown in both foreign and domestic policy that his method is cruelty. The invasion of Ukraine and the way in which Navalny and his other opponents are defeated exposes the reprehensible character of the head of Kremlin and reminds us of those who want to take a stand in the face of current war conflicts and ideologies.
It is necessary to reassess political positions based on the restoration of fundamental principles, even if the event in question does not particularly concern us as Brazilians. We're human, aren't we? We must therefore reject complicity with dictators who disregard human rights and whose actions are aimed more at maintaining power than at protecting individuals from it.
Today's world is characterized by two different trends: an authoritarian and autocratic trend and a democratic and liberal trend. We can judge the content of their own tendencies by the way politicians move among the prominent figures of this contradictory world.
Why does our country not position itself in line with the established democracies of the West, but instead supports the ruling and emerging tyrannies in speeches and gestures?
Brazil's proximity to Russia and the cynicism with which President Lula treated the death of the Russian autocrat's main opponent are shameful and regrettable. Feigning dementia by commenting on this death was under suspicion and that an investigation needed to be done to determine that “the guy died of this or that.”
Alexei Navalny's creative freedom
In an article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Andreas Rüesch writes that the fate of Alexei Navalny reveals a lot about today's Russia. Putin, writes the former NZZ correspondent in Moscow, “has secured his place in the history books as the tyrant who plunged Russia into ruin with his megalomaniacal war against Ukraine.” Inextricably linked to this are crimes against opponents like Navalny. His case highlights the evil that is corroding Russia. The country is consumed by corruption and its elite is enriching itself to a degree that would have been unthinkable even in Soviet times.”
The article goes on to explain that the country is suffocating and losing its best talent, saying: “Russia needs, like air to breathe, an organizational capacity like Navalny's.” The air that Navalny breathed and that he breathed into Russia, is called freedom.
“All countries should be proud of a creative bundle of energy like Alexei Navalny,” wrote Andreas Rüesch. “He was no ordinary politician; With his originality, new research methods, his organizational talent and a refreshing dose of humor, he revolutionized opposition work. In addition, he was approachable in person, with grace and without pedantry. Navalny had charisma, a quality that the entire Kremlin team lacks. People like him get far in free countries. They die in Russia.”
Testimony x ideology
Those who want to see Russia as the glorious empire of other times have not yet understood that true greatness is that of the spirit and that the greatness of the human spirit is expressed only in freedom. The nation that suffocates them perishes instead of becoming great.
Thousands of Russians stood up to Putin and paid their last respects to Alexei Navalny, paying homage to the man who died for an ideal and who reawakened in young people the courage to fight for freedom.
No tyrant is able to suppress the human desire for justice and freedom, and no secular power is able to cool the spirit of political struggle of those who are moved by true values.
For those present at the memorial service, Navalny was not just a lifeless and lifeless body, he represented the courage and strength of those who understand that justice can only be achieved with courage and testimony.
To be a witness is to act in accordance with the truth proclaimed; It's about letting language signal through life and modulating language in harmony with life. Witnessing means taking the risk of a decision and accepting the pain of the consequences; It's about going beyond the pragmatic arguments of selfinterest and the contradictions of ideologies.
Ideologies do not provoke statements, but rather fanaticism. Ideology leads to blind, unclear, obsessive and sometimes cruel action in the name of an unreflective, poorly assimilated and detached belief in the true nature of things.
Witness, on the other hand, leads to the overcoming of fanaticism and egoism because it opens up deeper, more spiritual and sublime spaces of reflection in harmony with the truth. A true testimony is one that leads to true values. Heroic action is not compatible with mediocrity or villainy.
The real man and the false leader
We no longer have time for false heroes or false prophets. Our time needs real men like Alexei Navalny, whose authenticity added value to political action and brought together scattered and diffuse ideas of will with his touch of creative freedom.
Real and authentic men are more venerable than false myths who proclaim themselves leaders and lead the masses. The difference is subtle. But he who is attentive will recognize the true man and separate him from the false leader. Our false leaders today stand with the tyrant who murdered a real man.