‘A Silent Protest of the Spirit’ — Alexei Navalny Campaigner on ‘Solidarity in Grief’
A volunteer for multiple Alexei Navalny campaigns — Dmitrii Kovegin — offers us his thoughts on the opposition leader’s funeral
“They jail hundreds to instill fear in millions.”—Alexei Navalny
‘A Silent Protest of the Spirit’
I asked my friend Dmitrii Kovegin to offer his observations on the funeral of Alexei Navalny, who he worked for on two political campaigns in Russia.
He offered the Bette community the thoughts below. As in my previous interview with him, I am leaving the transcripts raw and unedited.
Dear Heidi,
Here are my thoughts based on what I saw on social media. First and globally, what is matters now — this is the state of consciousness of the people who have come and are coming to say goodbye to Alexei Navalny:
Not all sympathizers and mourners were able to come to the grave on the day of Navalny’s funeral. Throughout the second and third days, people continued to come and more will come in upcoming days to his grave to say goodbye.
One of the unexpected manifestations of solidarity in grief is a large number of citizens from the age group of 60+. This is unexpected because it fully reveals the long-standing lie of Russian propaganda that only the younger generation of voters follow and support Navalny.
Alexei's funeral represents for the mourners a silent protest of the spirit against the murder of a politician they trusted. The motivation of those who came is a feeling of special bitterness — from the loss of their friend and from lost hope for the future. Some of them came to ask Alexei's forgiveness and to give an oath to themselves to be stronger in future actions.
The power of emotional impact on mourners: An opposition activist, who I know personally in the US, has two adult daughters who fled abroad. Her daughters cried throughout the day of Navalny's funeral. The reason for such a strong grief was that they were saying goodbye to the Russia that they knew and still had hope for. Russia of Future will never be the same for them again.
The conclusions about the protest potential: The people who came are undoubtedly brave citizens. They were in danger of detention and at least of administrative arrest. A huge number of Navalny’s supporters who attended the funeral previously reported that they were ready to go to prison for the right to come to Alexei's funeral. It means, they were ready to be detained for several days as part of administrative detention.
On the day of Alexei Navalny’s funeral, people noticed what appeared to be snipers (or simply observers?) on the roofs of multi-story buildings around the funeral's procession.
The potential of protests of the current moment: Now all opposition Russian journalists and speakers agreed that democratic changes in Russia can occur only with an armed uprising. I think that people who came to Alexei Navalny’s funeral are not ready to give their lives in this kind of fight.
First of all, because in Russia, there are no automatic/semiautomatic weapons arsenals in the hands of the regular Russians citizens. In their mind, they calculate their risks of participating in an ineffective uprising. No one cannot count on an armed uprising even in the distant future. If you want to catch some news in this direction, then watch over Mark Feygin, the initiator of the stalled alternative presidential elections from Putin's opposition, who is in touch now with the Russian underground. But as for 'the Russia' itself, in fact, and according to Russian legislation, is disarmed in most regions. The people en masse do not know how to use weapons, and Putin's services controls and will continue to control absolutely the entire domestic arms market.
Russian opposition activists often heard reproaches from the sleeping population, “Why are you active? You're ruining your life. Why do you need this?' But my oppositionist friend has an excellent answer, which she told to those who asked her multiple times, 'We are suing in the ECHR (The European Court of Human Rights) to show for Russian society that there is no judicial system in Russia. According to international law, the people have the right to revolt if there are no other instruments for a legal change of power. So that in the future the people of Russia can legally move to an armed uprising against the usurpers of power.'
The judicial system in Russia has been completely destroyed. As the Russian political scientist correctly noted — Russian citizens who attended Navalny’s funeral are now expressing disagreement with all the sentences passed on Navalny. According to Russian court decisions, Alexei Navalny is a terrorist, extremist, fraudster and an insulter to the judge.
A political refugee friend of mine likes to repeat an important phrase that describes Russia for at least the last 10 years: 'Every time an innocent person is tried, Jesus Christ is crucified.' Right now there is a victory of evil over good. Putin killed the hero, and he didn’t want to even let people say goodbye. Russian authorities did not want Navalny's funeral. Partly because it’s difficult to disperse people.
This was not in the funeral agenda, but people used the first day of Alexei's funeral to protest and show that they are against the war and against the genocide of Ukrainians, political murders, political prisoners. The Russian citizens want a 'Beautiful Russia of the Future', in which Alexei Navalny wanted to live, and for which he returned risking his life. Putin wants to destroy any democratic legacy, and he wants to rewrite everything that can threaten him with his lies.
Sincerely,
DK
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(Illustration by Steve Brodner, 3.23.2022.)