Navalny--a hero for our times

Before history buries the exploits of one man I want to give a bit of my memory.  A CNN special seen for a second time prompted this blog. Plus some unsettling news that in prison Alexei Navalny was ill and not receiving adequate medical attention.

Putin is upset that the Russian Empire has been dismantled.  He wants to control more people  His action against dissidents is despicable.  The admiration of other authoritarian leaders including Donald Trump reflects poorly on them.

Contrast the British Empire and to a lesser extent Francophonie.  Certainly they exploited huge sections of the world they were able to conquer.  Both European powers had developed democratic structures.  Both Empires were dismantled for economic factors, but have maintained significant cultural and economic ties.   

The evidence against the Putin regime is circumstantial, but pretty overwhelming.  Novichok has been identified as the poisoning agent used twice against Navalny as well against two former Russians in Salisbury and who knows how many others.  It supposedly cannot be traced after a few hours in the blood of its victims. It is only manufactured at one location in Moscow under the supervision of specialist scientists.  Additional evidence comes from travel records of the scientists who seem to coincide with travel plans of Navalny.

In the film after gathering information that points to specific people Navalny himself using the name of a higher authority contacts the agents identified  on the pretense of analyzing what went wrong in their efforts to kill him.  He is able to get a description of their procedures including destroying his clothing that contained traces of Novichok.  There is also despair that by bad luck he got away.   

Why all the fuss over one man?  He had the effrontery to accuse Putin of being crook to the Russian public.  Furthermore drawing support from Russians.  He also had the gall to return to Russia after his first poisoning.   He is now in prison and apparently not receiving adequate medical attention.

Navalny is also part Ukrainian and used to visit a grandmother in Ukraine that enabled to also speak Ukrainian.  He seems very articulate in English as well.  Naturally he has expressed an opinion opposed to the unjustified Ukrainian invasion.

His sense of humor (sometimes admittedly black).  One can hope that Russian people will rise up and heed Navalny's guidance.  Nelson Mandela overcame efforts to bring freedom to all South Africans.

His wife  Yulia Navalnaya and daughter Daria or (Dasha) Navalnaya are both articulate and supportive.

The Russian conundrum

My memory let me down.  I was under the impression Mikhail Khodorkovsky had been a long time friend of Putin and fell out of favor.  In fact he was a successful businessman who offended Putin after a few years of giving advice.  Mikhail was a leading advocate for western business practices and philanthropy.

As he recounts the perfidy of Putin while extolling his own virtues one hesitates a little as to who is telling the truth.  But there can be little doubt about who has almost no credibility--Putin.  It is too bad that more people didn't heed the words of Khodorkovsky decades ago and perhaps there would have been no need for this book.  His perspective and opinions would serve western powers better than currently.

Khodorkovsky did not have wealthy parents, but he got a good education.   His academic interest was chemistry.  Some bankers liked him and helped him to get access to foreign currencies through bigger banks.  This allowed him to put together a group that took over a heavily indebted state company, Yukos that had not been able to pay its employees.  With better business practices modeled on western practices the company was straightened out.  With good timing it rose to be the largest tax payer in Russia and Mikhail to be the richest man in the country.

Along the way Khodorkovsky was strongly advocating western business practices and democratic systems.  He had many times been called to advise Putin, but too much criticism of the Russian way was too much and Khodorkovsky was eventually charged with spurious crimes and spent over 10 years in prison, mostly in a remote area. 

In 2013 he was released to England where at first he thought things were progressing in Russia, but soon felt otherwise.  Watching the BBC to improve his English he was struck that the rest of the world depicted Russia quite different than what he was familiar with.  It was also quite noticeable that in Russia all Western governments were criticized.

A pro Moscow government in Ukraine was ousted and Russia was determined to assert itself.  In 2014 Mikhail flew to Kiev and spoke at Maidan Square to support Ukrainians and later to Donbas.  He had set up an advocacy group, Open Russia promoting democracy running unopposed outside Russia but over the years repressed in the country.

Putin is deceptive, saying whatever his audience will accept.  Putin's rationalization in a quote:  " A strong state is not an anomaly to be got rid of.  Quite the contrary, it is the source of order."

Putin is motivated in large part by domestic politics. The economy is poorly managed and Putin has found foreign aggression raises his popularity.  He manipulated elections and when he constitution restricted him to two terms he used Dmitry Mededev as a front man and then rewrote the constitution.

A key person in Putin's setup is Yevgeny Prigozhin who started as a food vendor in St. Petersburg and came to the attention of Putin.  Not put off by his gangster reputation and prison history,  He came with Putin to Moscow and was tasked with organizing a mercenary group that is officially denied.  They seem to appear at various hot spots such as Crimea, Syria, Libya, Georgia, and Central African Republic.  Prigozhin was put in charge of interfering in the American Election of 2016 which involved projects in 2014.  Many of the Russian efforts involved social media.  Robert Mueller correctly identified Prigozhin's role which ended in a sanction.  

They did not at first expect Trump to win, but wanted to tarnish America's image.  They complained against immigration "failures" Black Lives Matter, Muslims.  A favourite strategy was to suggest voter fraud.  They did hack some Democrat emails to hurt Hillary Clinton..  

Khodorkovsky noted that the Mueller Report was very accurate regarding Russian efforts at the 2016 election.  Trump went so far as to fire the FBI director among other efforts to stop the report.

Russia uses poisons with a lab specializing in the nuances.  We know they have been used on dissidents as well as former agents, but it is possible we don't know all of the victims.  Alexei Navalny, a popular dissident was poisoned twice and saved only by alert doctors and others willing to bend protocols.

Like Michael Cohen, Mikhail believed that Putin did not necessarily have some kind of information on Trump who he thought just admired the stealth of the Russian leader.  But perhaps there was some sort of hold--check http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2019/06/house-of-trump-house-of-putin.html

After Joe Biden took over the presidency Putin did not let up.  The January 6th insurrection demonstrated American hypocrisy.            

The Russians are credited with cyber attacks against American corporations with ransomware and also the Joe Biden administration.

Moldova was a small country bordering south of Ukraine.  During most of its existence it had a pro Moscow government.  A few years ago that government was replaced and when Russia invaded Ukraine Moldova supported Ukraine.  Russia had already started supporting an opposition party.  Putin also props up the autocratic Belorussian government and although not able to get them to attack Ukraine, have been using their territory for launching missiles.

Russia has long used China as an ally to frighten America, but Russia no longer has the leverage over China that it once had.  Noteworthy Putin visited China during the Winter Olympics to shore up support and actually started the invasion during the Winter Paralympics against protocol.  China has tried to stay out of it.

His advice is worth considering.  He notes that the sanctions used are often depicted as against the Russian people and feels sanctions need to be specifically against members of the administration.  Courage is needed to stand up to abusive government behaviour.  With Open Russia, Mikhail supports opposition publications and tries to educate journalists.  He feels confident Putin will eventually be gone as he makes too many mistakes.  There may well be an heir, but likely a crisis will depose of them.  

Quote from the author:  "...a new society cannot be built with anger and revenge" and "...forgiveness is dearer than punishment."

How do you think we should deal with Putin?

An example of Russia fitting in with the rest of the world with my most recent post:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2022/11/compartment-number-6.html

The Banishment, A Russian film to ponder

The Banishment was only the second feature for Andrey Zvyagintsev as director and on the first one he wrote the script.  For this one he searched for a suitable subject and finally hit upon "The Laughing Matter" by William Saroyan and in 2004 preparation for the film began.   I have not read that book, but it has been pointed out that the character of the leading woman has been changed. In the book she was portrayed as mentally unstable, but in the film she is less so.

Andrey felt his film would not be popular with Americans as it lacks physical action and requires a mythological sensibility and some introspection.  A lot of Russian films might fit that bill.  Check http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2017/08/russian-movies.html which includes some other films by Zvyagintsev and Russian contributions to world cinema.

A key line near the beginning from Vera:  "I am pregnant.  It's not yours."  The husband, Alexander is very upset and at first walks away.  Later as she tries to explain herself he hits her hard enough to knock her to the floor.  In the second half we get a different perspective.  The main male character does not want to lose his children and is looking for a resolution that starts with an abortion.  He has two brothers, one, Mark is criminal and the other Robert is more sensitive.

The producer, Dmitry Lesnevsky and Andrey had agreed on a Swedish actress (who spoke Russian), but she was tied up for a key filming time.  The producer agreed to postpone for a year to get the key time of August and September in 2006 for filming exterior shots.

With an extra year for preparation they had to provide security for some mostly built properties Moldova, France, and Belgium.  Other crew and cast members chosen and prepared.  The script was tidied up.

Andrey Zvyagintsev, the director had been born in the Siberian city of Novisibirsk and started out to be actor on stage.  Moving to Moscow he tackled the film industry but could only get roles as an extra.  After 8 years of that a friend offered him a chance to direct with tv. programs.  He was given a chance to direct "The Return" (2003) which won an award at the Venice International Film Festival.  He continued with short films, but also a succession of award winning films, "The Banishment" (2007), "Elena" (2011),"Leviathon" (2014) and "Loveless" (2017).  He has stated that his favorite author was Fyodor Dostoevsky which would help explain his preference for serious themes.  Of current interest is that he that in 2017 he had supportive words for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Dmitry Lesnevsky, the producer, Moscow born had graduated as a journalist, but while in university with his mothr he had founded REN-Tv which became an independent and large tv production company where he became familiar with Andrey.  Dmitry gave Andrey the opportunity to direct "The Return"in 2003.  His films won awards and he moved on acquire a German Tv network which was later sold to Disney. 

Konstatin Lavronenko who played Alexander had been spotted by Andrey on a stage play and made an impression.  However ten years later when Andrey was recruiting cast members for "The Return" Konstatin had given up acting for five years.  He played the strong lead in that film and won an award at the Venice Internatonal Film Festival.  Andrey did not think he would be suitable for "The Banishment" because his age wasn't ideal, however Konstantin was allowed to read the script after which he campaigned for the role.  Again he was selected for the lead role.  This led to him winning the Palme award at the Cannes Film Festival, the first time a Russian had won.  He has been working steadily in movies and tv.

Maria Bonnevie  who played the female lead, Vera was born in Sweden.  She has appeared in films with Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and English cinema including "Insomnia" (1997).  She speaks Russian and was one of the first roles decided.

Alexandr Balluev who played the brother Mark, in his youth hoped to be a hockey player.  He sent 7 years with the Soviet Army Theatre.  He had appeared in a few American films and was a big star in Russia.  He also speaks German, English and French.

Dmitry Ulyanov played the 3rd brother Robert, who gave some emotional support to Vera.  His film career started in 2000.

I originally viewed this a little too casually and felt I was missing something even after the special features.  A second more careful viewing gave me some more insight, although not certain I really got it.  Multiple viewings can often give more understanding and enjoyment.  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2020/08/multiple-viewings-can-enhance-your.html

I have now seen all 5 of Andrey Zvyagintsev feature films and they have all been impressive.  I look forward to his next film.