‘It wasn’t written by Navalny!’ Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny responds to those skeptical he writes his own posts
Jailed Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny has responded to comments questioning whether he actually authored his essay “My Fear and Loathing,” in which he blames former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his contemporaries for Vladimir Putin’s rise to power. In his response, Navalny also criticizes those who say they can’t argue with him while he’s in prison. Meduza is publishing his response in full.
I started receiving letters with feedback about my post on fear and loathing.
I am reading them with great interest. Many thanks to everyone who has drawn attention to this discussion. I repeat, this discussion is not theoretical, not historical, and is not related to political science. It is the most relevant discussion of how to defeat “Putin’s regime.” After all, this regime is not only about Putin himself but also about a part of the elite (in the broad sense) that considers the current way of governing our country as appropriate. “There are, of course, kinks, but in general it is acceptable. It is impossible to do otherwise. The people are like this.”
As an opposition, we have a different point of view… “Uh, what is it” — the voters may ask us. However, it turns out that we still haven’t made up our minds about whether we should discuss election fraud and corruption. Defeating the “Putin regime” means a victory over its supporters in the elections. Meanwhile, we only have Chubais, Sobchak, Yeltsin’s Constitution, and an alliance with Khodorkovsky’s Wagner Group on our banners. Cool.
Guaranteed 1.5% in non-free elections and 0.5% in free elections. I will try to write about all this in detail once I have read and considered everything.
In the meantime, two very important comments should be made.
The first one. I rewrote this part three times, and each time I was trying to reduce the level of offense and personal attacks until I reached a friendly and constructive tone (at least I think so).
I've had a blog for about 20 years and have written thousands of posts. I've been in jail for 2.5 years already and I did manage to write something.
However, for the second time in my life (the first one was after the post "I am ashamed of Mikhail Khodorkovsky"), I am facing a reaction of blatant and brazen lies about the fact that I am not the one who writes my posts. These lies range from direct ones (“Navalny didn’t write it”) to even more nauseating and hinting ones like “many people say that he didn’t write it, but there are no denials, so I guess he did, but who knows”.
This is not just a social media lie, someone even paid to post it as an article.
The thing is that I’m the one being accused of lying. It turns out that I’m lying to you. Someone is writing my posts instead of me, and I appropriate them for myself. Not technical texts, but program texts. Don’t pretend that I don’t know that. My isolation level is very high. However, like any other prisoner, I have the right to correspondence and to any of my own statements.
I have already expressed my thoughts about "doubts about the authorship" and I will repeat it the last time kindly and constructively, but firmly.
Some of those who repeat these lies are just dumb. We forgive them.
Some of them are hypocrites. They know they're lying, but they're playing dumb. That's fine too.
However, the organizers and constant persistent promoters of this idea are not only disgusting villains and shameless people, but they are also public snitches.
Let me explain.
What did I just get 19 years for? For words. Literally. For posts, and videos that were considered extremist by Putin's court. Most of them were posted AFTER I was put in jail.
In the ongoing terrorism investigation, the essence of the charges is the same — posts on the Internet. They were all posted after I was jailed.
You have no idea to what extent the interests and arguments of those liars and swindlers who discuss my authorship on social media match those of Putin's investigators.
Is it you who's writing this? Confirm your authorship. How do you write it? No, wait, let's discuss it. How do you do it technically? Do you have a phone or do you send it through someone? Do you send it through lawyers or letters? We need to know everything. Explain it to us.
What these bastards are doing is public denunciation. They know everything, they understand everything, but they keep asking: "How can you prove it's you? Tell us all the details. Otherwise, we'll continue our fucking circus that you're not writing your own posts."
“Comrade Bastrykin and comrade Bortnikov you better check it out. Check everything and pay special attention to it. How is it possible that he is in jail and continues to write bad things about comrade Putin.”
“We’re going to make him tell us everything, and you’re going to take action. Stop the whole chain. Stop this mess.”
That's exactly what it is. It does not look like a public denunciation, but thanks to the persistence it is. I, personally, have nothing to lose, but I am not alone.
That's why I have this suggestion to all normal people:
a) If you see any arguments about the authorship of texts by political prisoners (except for obvious cases of social media hacking, but in this case, it will be evident), especially with “prove to us that it is you” and discussion of the mechanism. Just know that you are facing a liar, a villain, and an informer. Never trust such a person again.
b) If you see such a thing, go to the comments and kick the villain verbally. I am not the only one affected by this. There are many political prisoners and there will be even more. All these stupid discussions will make their lives and the lives of relatives and lawyers more complicated.
The second important comment. One of the most popular reactions from those who considered my post to be criticism of their own is: “Navalny is wrong, but I can’t criticize him while he’s in jail.”
I urge absolutely everyone: let's stop thinking this way, it's nonsense. Half a million people are in prison. Shouldn't we criticize them all? Not all political prisoners are necessarily good and holy. Being in prison does not make any difference. A person should be judged by his deeds, not by where he is.
The only topics you don’t need to argue about with those who are in prison are prison topics, because you don’t understand anything about it if you haven’t been in prison yourself. Even if you have read a lot of books about it or your relative has been in jail, you still don’t understand. That’s what I’ve learned from my own example. You don’t need to understand anything about it, it’s not worth it.
The most important thing of all. You're depriving me of the most important and the most valuable thing. Criticism.
How else can I think, work, and improve myself?
Criticism and competition are the basis of progress, and I and the whole Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) can’t live without it.
For example, I criticize Alexei Venediktov and will continue to do so. However, objectively speaking, it is him who has done me (and ACF) the most valuable favor over the past year.
He published Leonid Volkov's famous letter. It provoked a huge wave of criticism. There was a crucial discussion both in general and within ACF. We were forced to deal with the crisis. Leonid resigned as head of the international ACF. We changed some of our internal procedures. We were thinking about how to fix the problem, and we fixed it. Leonid explained his actions very thoroughly and publicly. I made a statement about it as well.
ACF gained critical experience, corrected a mistake, and became better. Volkov reacted like a responsible politician, corrected a mistake, and became a better person. He is now working very successfully on our most important project. I also received my portion of criticism back then, and I will forever take this experience into account in my work.
You, meanwhile, have also gained useful knowledge: you have seen how ACF deals with the crisis. Whether it corrects a mistake. Whether it acts responsibly. Now you have a better idea of what to expect from us and how we will act, especially if we find ourselves in a position of power. You can compare our behavior in a crisis with other politicians and political organizations.
Criticism and competition have proven to be beneficial to everyone.
In the situation with my post (program post), it is the same.
I need your opinion. If you agree — that’s important, and I’ll note it. If you disagree - I will either disprove your arguments or agree with them.
I consider the phrase “the opposition is arguing again” as the marker of a moron.
These are political debates, even if they’re on Twitter or Facebook. There is no life and no progress without them. If you want people with different points of view not to argue with each other, you better go to the United Russia party or the CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation).
So please criticize me if you disagree, I can't live without it.