Also, there are divergent reactions to the news of Navalny's death. He was both an opposition leader and a staunch Russian nationalist. I don't think these two elements contradict each other but mutually support each other. Ukrainians, Georgians, Kazakhs, Kalmyks, etc. 1/
have been victims of Navalny's brand of nationalistic opposition politics. His comments and views on "blacks," which I need to contextualize here as targeting people from Central Asia and the Caucasus, not necessarily the African diaspora or Africans, were racist. 2/
His opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine was often due to how it would harm Russia, not Ukraine. All of these things are true. We should hold these facts together. At the same time, it can mean that his death is the destruction of an alternative to Putinism. 3/
Navalny was murdered by the same regime that has openly killed and jailed journalists and opposition leaders for decades both ethnic Russians and ethnic minorities. Putin has led the slaughter and destruction of Ukrainians, Georgians, and Chechens. 4/
Navalny's legacy is complicated, to say the least. We can also recognize his murder as the latest example of a reckless pursuit of Russian state power and expansion that has had deadly consequences.
I know dozens of ethnic minorities, including Muslim Crimean Tatars living in occupied Crimea, have been imprisoned in Russia for speaking out against Putin. Navalny gets attention, yes, but what worries me is now that he is dead, what happens to the others? How many will die?
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