2003 Yuri Shchekochikhin
2003 Sergei Yushenkov
2006 Anna Politkovskaya
2006 Alexander Litvinenko
2009 Stanislav Markelov
2009 Anastasia Baburova
2009 Natalia Estemirova
2009 Sergei Magnitsky
2015 Boris Nemtsov
2024 Alexei Navalny
@rysiek
And this list doesn't include the many oligarchs and retired military men who either died by "suicide" or fell out a window since Putin invaded Ukraine in '22.
@PhilipCJames while I don't want to minimize their deaths and suffering, my post was more about Putin murdering his critics and political opponents in a targeted, premeditated, often especially cruel (to send a signal) way.
There are obviously many, many more victims of his. Too many to list.
@specked you're welcome to hold that opinion. You're more than welcome to start your own thread about it.
Meanwhile, the man is dead after he decided to stay and fight against Putin's regime. Your hypothetical about him "not being an improvement over Putin", in the context of quite-not-hypothetical things Putin did and continues to do, is not welcome in my replies.
@rysiek It's not hypothetical; it's grounded in objective analysis of his actions and speech. Idolizing someone merely because they're not Putin is a naive solution. I appreciate your passion, but I hold high expectations for your responses, especially considering the support you've shown for the Ukrainian-Russia conflict, which I've admired.
@specked ah well if it's based on an "objective analysis", then I stand corrected! "Objective analysis" can't be wrong or biased, obviously it's objective by definition! :blobcat:
@rysiek Your reply seems petty. I've offered a reputable source on the matter, and I'm willing to provide additional sources if needed. Thus far, your responses seem unnecessarily stubborn.
@specked I happen to have worked with RFE/RL, I am even quoted by them in a piece or two (about something else).
I regard their reporting highly.
I also had worked with other investigative journalists, some of whom covered Russia, were Russian, or lived in Russia.
And I know that people are complex, especially when dealing with circumstances as devilishly difficult as Navalny and other opposition figures in Russia have/had to deal with.
@rysiek It's baffling that you're so resolute in supporting someone with a history and rhetoric that's easily questionable. Just take a moment to examine his past and speeches.
@specked I am aware of his past speeches. I am also aware that the man is dead.
Putin has just murdered a political opponent — one that wasn't playing by the rules of security forces, assassinations, and so on, but one that was playing by the rules of democratic protest and democratic elections.
Were some of his views problematic? Sure. Show me a politician whose views you 100% agree with.
Would I have criticized him if he were in charge and put some of his views into practice? Certainly.
@rysiek You're drawing a false equivalence between disagreeing with a politician's stance and supporting a self-proclaimed white nationalist. This disappointment runs deep.
@specked the "white nationalist" is your interpretation, one that I do not necessarily agree with.
But I don't think this is going anywhere. I guess I will just have to find a way live with the heavy burden of being aware of your disappointment and disapproval of me, then.
@specked@rysiek You don't have to (and probably shouldn't) agree with Navalny in every single respect in order to acknowledge his contribution to resistance and opposition against putin's authoritarian rule and in favour of a democratic order and the free formation of political opinion. It's not about perceiving Navalny as the perfect presidential candidate for russia, but about Navalny being the only realistic democratic alternative to putin's regime – and about the kremlin's oppression.
@pixelcode@specked@rysiek This specked person is going around to every single person it can find and trying to claim he’s the same as Putin. Should be entirely blocked on his single user instance.
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