Essay Example on Alexei Navalny: Nemesis of the Kremlin.
Essay Example on Alexei Navalny: Nemesis of the Kremlin.
Persecuted. Harangued. Harassed. Vilified. Poisoned. Imprisoned. From an obscure young lawyer, Alexei Navalny emerged to become a global figure in his activism against a corrupt authoritarian regime in Russia. In a climate where any opposition and dissent are severely punished by the strongmen in the Kremlin, Navalny risked his life to expose human rights violations and many other repressive tactics of Vladimir Putin’s government. A true activist for fairness and democracy and firm fighter for his beliefs – Alexei Navalny demonstrates exactly what kind of personal and political sacrifices are necessary to be a leader worthy of worldwide admiration and respect.
Alexei Navalny became a household name in opposition circles in Russia when he organized protests to challenge the legitimacy of parliamentary elections to the State Duma in December of 2011. Ever since Vladimir Putin took presidential power in 2000, electoral fraud and corruption had become synonymous with his rule. With unwavering courage, after his release from prison for his involvement in organizing the protests, Navalny made his intentions clear that he would run for presidency in 2012, if elections were free and fair. Then, Putin’s regime made their first move to silence the dissident by charging him with a number of trumped-up charges in criminal, civil, and administrative courts. Navalny appealed his cases to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in his favor and found that seven instances of his arrests and detention were politically motivated and awarded punitive damages from the Russian authorities to the total of 225, 000 euros.
Despite the constant flood of criminal accusations and convictions, and arrests, Navalny threw a challenge to the Kremlin and ran for the mayoral seat in Moscow in 2013. He received 27.24% of the vote and came in second, behind the Kremlin-backed incumbent, Sergei Sobyanin. After the loss, he continued to organize protests movements in Russia, especially with the help of Anti-Corruption Foundation. Then on August 20, 2020 Navalny and his supporters suffered a terrible blow when he fell gravely ill on a Moscow-bound flight. He was hospitalized and put into a medically induced coma and transferred to a hospital in Berlin. The German lab found that Navalny was poisoned with nerve agent, Novichok – the deadliest form of chemical poisoning. When the German government asked the Russian authorities for an explanation, they denied any involvement in the assassination attempt. Upon investigation, the European Union and Great Britain found six high-ranking officials to be involved in the poisoning of Navalny and imposed sanctions against them. The chemical poisoning caused an international sensation and demonstrated exactly how much the Kremlin fears Navalny’s opposition and activism.
After his treatment and recovery, Navalny returned to Russia where he was immediately arrested and sentenced to a labor colony.
No matter how much he is persecuted and attacked, Alexei Navalny never gives up his fight for justice and freedom. While many would choose a peaceful, conflict-free life, Navalny accepts the personal suffering and legal battles to fight for a greater cause. He is not seeking a grand political office for wealth or prestige, but out of sheer conviction to bring true democratic practices and institutions to a nation that had experienced little of either. Whether or not one agrees with Navalny on specific policy points is irrelevant in light of seeing this individual risk life itself in order to protest human rights violations and corrupt and unfair practices of his government. If the authorities in power went so far as to chemically poison him, then Navalny is closer to achieving his goal of threatening the Kremlin’s status quo with his popular movements and protests.
Becoming a leading opponent against a powerful, established incumbent carries a great personal risk, one that Navalny faces it daily with dignity and unwavering faith in his principles – not only do those qualities make him a favorite leader, in my opinion, but an inspirational person. He lives by the words of creating the change he wants to see in the world, no matter what danger or difficulty such a task presents. What his actions mean for Russia’s political landscape only time can tell, but one thing is evident is that Alexei Navalny will not give up his fight for a better future – a future of full-fledged democracy that respects and upholds rights of its people.
