I never understood why he did. He had to know Putin was going to throw him in the gulag, and imo could have done a lot more influencing Russians from the outside rather than simply martyring himself and ruining the rest of his life. Now there's absolutely no one standing up to Putin, and Nalvany is dead. Imo Russia is in a worse spot as a result.
Exactly. Going back to Russia was suicide.
It wasn't even a dramatic suicide like the Vietnamese monk who set himself on fire and drew attention to a cause. It was a suicide that didn't really draw any additional attention to Russia, and instead just silenced one of the critics who the world was listening to.
The last time he was in Russia Putin tried to murder him with a nerve agent, and that was only about 5 months before he turned himself in. While he was in Germany recovering from the poisoning, he was able to get the poisoner on the phone and trick him into confessing what had happened and how it had been done. That drew attention to Putin because it was such a dramatic story about tricking one of the agents.
But, flying to Russia to surrender to Putin? What exactly did he think was going to happen? What a waste!
It did draw extra attention, lots of extra attention actually. Navalny's problems in the Russian prison system made the news frequently, regularly reminding everyone what a fucked up state Russia is. Immolating himself on the red square would have been far less effective since that's been done a few times already (there's been a few people who have immolated themselves there already). So as a suicide with a message/martyr for a cause, it was in my perception fairly effective at getting a message across I think. Point in case: we're talking about it again even now ...
As much attention as he could have drawn if he had stayed outside Russia? I doubt it.
Eh, there is more than one man with values to a country of 140mln, one would expect.
It's just that this is not about standing up to someone. It's like a toxic swamp. Like fighting windmills which can and will kill you.
I suppose this was an emotional decision, such a swamp breeds cowardice, and feeling cowardice in people around you (figuratively) may be unbearable. Which is maybe why he wanted to do that.
I never understood why he did. He had to know Putin was going to throw him in the gulag, and imo could have done a lot more influencing Russians from the outside rather than simply martyring himself and ruining the rest of his life. Now there's absolutely no one standing up to Putin, and Nalvany is dead. Imo Russia is in a worse spot as a result.
Exactly. Going back to Russia was suicide.
It wasn't even a dramatic suicide like the Vietnamese monk who set himself on fire and drew attention to a cause. It was a suicide that didn't really draw any additional attention to Russia, and instead just silenced one of the critics who the world was listening to.
The last time he was in Russia Putin tried to murder him with a nerve agent, and that was only about 5 months before he turned himself in. While he was in Germany recovering from the poisoning, he was able to get the poisoner on the phone and trick him into confessing what had happened and how it had been done. That drew attention to Putin because it was such a dramatic story about tricking one of the agents.
But, flying to Russia to surrender to Putin? What exactly did he think was going to happen? What a waste!
It did draw extra attention, lots of extra attention actually. Navalny's problems in the Russian prison system made the news frequently, regularly reminding everyone what a fucked up state Russia is. Immolating himself on the red square would have been far less effective since that's been done a few times already (there's been a few people who have immolated themselves there already). So as a suicide with a message/martyr for a cause, it was in my perception fairly effective at getting a message across I think. Point in case: we're talking about it again even now ...
As much attention as he could have drawn if he had stayed outside Russia? I doubt it.
Eh, there is more than one man with values to a country of 140mln, one would expect.
It's just that this is not about standing up to someone. It's like a toxic swamp. Like fighting windmills which can and will kill you.
I suppose this was an emotional decision, such a swamp breeds cowardice, and feeling cowardice in people around you (figuratively) may be unbearable. Which is maybe why he wanted to do that.