SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 2.18.2024
Convicted financial fraudster and soon to be convicted criminal felon. Donald Trump has uttered not a word about the mysterious death of Russian opposition leader, now martyr, Aleksei Navalny in a Russian prison.
Aleksei Navalny in death. Larger than life.
Nor has shyster con man Trump said anything about Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on Russians. Citizens courageous enough to speak out and protest Navalny’s death in a Russian Siberian gulag.
Why? Thug Putin is Trump’s kind of guy. Trump would like to treat Americans exercising their right to protest in the same vicious manner.
Excerpted from The The New York Times 2.18.2024
A bishop who planned a public prayer for the Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny was detained as he left his house. Two men were arrested for having a photograph of Mr. Navalny in a backpack.
A man who lay flowers at a memorial said he was beaten by police officers for the small act of remembrance.
Someone else placed a copy of Franz Kafka’s “The Trial” at the Solovetsky Stone , while others hung chains of paper cranes, candles, and a photo of Mr. Navalny smiling with fellow opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in 2015 in the shadow of the Kremlin.
Lena, who gave only her first name for fear of reprisal, started to cry. “They are scared of Navalny in jail,” she said, “they are scared of dead Navalny, they are scared of the people who bring flowers here to the Solovetsky stone.”
As thousands of Russians across the country tried to give voice to their grief for Mr. Navalny, who died in a remote Arctic penal colony on Friday, Russian police officers cracked down, temporarily detaining hundreds and placing more than two dozen in jail.
Until Mr. Navalny’s death at the age of 47, many observers had believed that the Kremlin would limit repression until after presidential elections in mid-March, when President Vladimir V. Putin is all but assured a fifth term. But many now fear that the arrests portend a broader crackdown.
Top photo: Police officers detained people who were paying tribute to Mr. Navalny at the Solovetsky Stone in St. Petersburg on Saturday. Credit…Associated Press
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