# Kremlin Critic - Aleksei Navalny dead **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 16, 2024, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658 "2024-02-16T13:04:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/1 "2024-02-16T13:04:05Z")
- “Crónica de una muerte anunciada” ( **Chronicle of a Death Foretold** ) the Garcia Marquéz Novel was my first thought - “_That’s what you get if you want (or have) a President that does not to respond to the rule of law_” was my second sorry for this man, he could have shut up and live a decent live of sheeple (or better than that, had he stayed in germany), but he chose not to … tip-to-the-hat ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/2 "2024-02-16T13:30:27Z")
But…but the Russians have a great system for preventing shopping cart theft, and Moscow is a wonderful clean city, and… ---
**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/3 "2024-02-16T14:38:27Z")
He was an intriguing figure, as he made it a bit easier to imagine a future Russia as a free and open society. I wonder what his private frame of mind was when he took the bold decision in 2021 to return from Germany to what he knew would be immediate detention in Russia. Was he guided by optimism, positioning himself to be the leader of a post-revolutionary Russia? Or was he guided by fatalism, thinking that he would always have to look over his shoulder abroad and that he might be slightly safer (or most useful as a martyr) if he was detained by Putin’s regime? ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/4 "2024-02-16T14:53:39Z")
Since this thread lacks a news report link: [https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/jailed-russian-opposition-leader-navalny-dead-prison-service-2024-02-16/](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/jailed-russian-opposition-leader-navalny-dead-prison-service-2024-02-16/) ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/5 "2024-02-16T15:07:35Z")
I take it he knew he was a marked man, that sooner or later he’d encounter a smear of some deadly toxin or a convenient high window and “lying low” would only delay it. So might as well go in and fight face to face the known consequences. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/6 "2024-02-16T15:28:28Z")
> [@Chad\_Sudan](#): > > I wonder what his private frame of mind was when he took the bold decision in 2021 to return from Germany to what he knew would be immediate detention in Russia. I’m sure he was thinking that it is rather hard to be a Russian politician when you live in Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/7 "2024-02-16T15:37:13Z")
In that case, he made the wrong decision, wouldn’t you agree? There’s a long tradition of politicians going into exile in the hopes of eventually returning. For example, Belarusian opposition leader [Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sviatlana_Tsikhanouskaya) lives in Lithuania. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/8 "2024-02-16T15:54:36Z")
I agree it is also hard to be a politician when you are dead. But it is not like being murdered was merely a hypothetical concept to him, and he obviously had access to a lot of intelligence we are not privy to and still made his decision, so it is hard to say from the outside exactly what he miscalculated. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/9 "2024-02-16T16:37:25Z")
> [@Chad\_Sudan](#): > > he made it a bit easier to imagine a future Russia as a free and open society. He was brave, sure, but - “free and open society”? Navalny was no liberal. Just ask Georgians, or Crimean Ukrainians, or immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/10 "2024-02-16T17:30:51Z")
Anyone find out exactly what the weather was like when he “decided to take a walk outside” up there in the Arctic? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/11 "2024-02-16T18:06:33Z")
I don’t know why he would return to Russia after mocking their Secret Service and making a popular documentary. But I do not have his understanding, nor his courage. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/12 "2024-02-16T18:41:49Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > I’m sure he was thinking that it is rather hard to be a Russian politician when you live in Germany. well, Schröder pulled that one off, quite convincingly … ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/13 "2024-02-16T18:50:25Z")
So did Lenin. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/14 "2024-02-16T18:51:20Z")
> [@Al128](#): > > tip-to-the-hat Isn’t it “tip-of-the-hat”? He couldn’t have been surprised by this outcome of his return to Russia, so I’m also puzzled by his choice to come back. Maybe we’ll never know. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/15 "2024-02-16T18:52:09Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Anyone find out exactly what the weather was like when he “decided to take a walk outside” up there in the Arctic? I heard it reported early this morning that the recorded temperature in the nearest town to the gulag was -5F, with a windchill factor of -27F. ETA: I’m saddened by the news of Navalny’s death, but of course not surprised. My heart breaks for his wife. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/16 "2024-02-16T18:57:13Z")
How did he accidentally fall out of a window? Aren’t prison windows barred? ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/17 "2024-02-16T19:11:29Z")
Perhaps just as well. It seemed like every couple weeks he’d have 15 years added to his sentence, And then getting to sent to the arctic, His only hope, as it were, would be an overthrow revolution or if Putin were actually terminally ill. Nobody’s takin’ it to the streets. The revolution will not be televised as it will not occur. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2024, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/18 "2024-02-16T20:41:50Z")
Said well. > **[Why Russia Killed Navalny](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/navalny-death-russia-prison/677485/)** > > Even behind bars, the dissident leader was a threat to the corrupt Russian dictator. ---
**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2024, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/19 "2024-02-17T13:57:07Z")
The _New York Times_ asked a number of Russian commentators what they thought motivated Navalny to return to Russia. Gift link: > **[With Prison Certain and Death Likely, Why Did Navalny Return?](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/world/europe/why-navalny-returned-to-russia.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WE0.RLpP.wcVwHqIbKBpD&smid=url-share)** > > An activist who thrived on agitation, he feared irrelevancy in exile. Winning new respect as he continued to lambast the Kremlin from behind bars cost him his life. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2024, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658/20 "2024-02-17T17:40:52Z")
Some people are now questioning the unbearable lightness of Tucker’s interview. > **[Tucker Carlson faces new backlash over Putin interview after Navalny death](https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2024/02/17/tucker-carlson-navalny-putin-killing/)** > > Tucker Carlson faced a fresh wave of criticism over his controversial interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, following the death of Alexei Navalny on Friday. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kremlin-critic-aleksei-navalny-dead/997658.md?page=2)