this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2024
185 points (98.4% liked)

World News

38563 readers
2900 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

ailed Russian opposition figure and outspoken Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, who made global headlines when he was poisoned with a nerve agent in 2020, has died, the Russian prison service said.

top 9 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 41 points 7 months ago

*has been murdered by Putin.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago

Has died? More like was died.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Well yeah. It's election time.

That being said? I have no love lost for the dude. He was an aggressive nationalist who didn't care about freedom or democracy, he cared about changing the status quo to his side. He actively approved the invasion of Crimea and only changed that in 2023 when there was a political reason to push against Putins invasion.

Not glad he's dead but I certainly don't care.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

He was also a Russian fascist with well documented association with the neo-Nazis in the early 2000s then turned into a pro-Western liberal who opposes Putin.

Edit: 2011 NY Times profile about Navalny (CW: racism):

Liberals, meanwhile, have deep reservations about him, because he espouses Russian nationalist views. He has appeared as a speaker alongside neo-Nazis and skinheads, and once starred in a video that compares dark-skinned Caucasus militants to cockroaches. While cockroaches can be killed with a slipper, he says that in the case of humans, “I recommend a pistol.”

Not to mention he voluntarily went back to Russia after believing they tried to have him killed. I don't know what he expected

Also the video of him being racist is still up on his personal YouTube channel to be clear. It is not a position he ever distanced himself from.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I think we should treat the question of how political prisoners are treated, and whether they're killed in prison, independently of whether we approve of their politics. Navalny's politics may not have been attractive, but this is still another example of Putin imprisoning and killing his critics, and that is what it is no matter where the critics are coming from politically.

I was just reading a thread about Julian Assange, another prisoner whose treatment is politically motivated and whose politics we may not like, and people there are saying they don't care how he's treated because he was acting as a Russian stooge. We're in danger of losing track of the difference between our moral view of an individual and the question of human rights. Rights should apply to everyone, nice or nasty, and leaders who abuse their critics should be held responsible, no matter whether we like or dislike the politics of the leader or the critic.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I think we should treat the question of how political prisoners are treated, and whether they’re killed in prison, independently of whether we approve of their politics.

I don't recall doing anything otherwise. I made a joke about the fact that Putin probably killed him due to it being election time. I'm not dismissing his death. I explicitly said that I have no personal love lost and that I'm not glad he's dead.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I didn't mean to be too critical. It was really the "I certainly don't care" part that struck me. Even if we don't care about him personally, or care for his politics, there's plenty to care about in how he was treated.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago

I was referring to the fact that he was dead which I thought was pretty clear from the context. Just because I don't care about the fact that he is no longer living doesn't mean that I am dismissive of the care that he was given to the point of his death.

You've been doing a lot of assuming so far without just simply asking what I actually meant.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Well that's one less nationalist