JRL NEWSWATCH: “Kremlin Seeks to Suppress Navalny’s Influence, in Death as in Life” – New York Times
“The Russian authorities vilified the opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny with a viciousness that suggested he was more influential than Moscow would admit. Little has changed since he died.”
“When … Navalny was alive, the Kremlin sought to portray him as an inconsequential figure unworthy of attention, even as … Russian authorities vilified and attacked him with a viciousness that suggested the opposite. In death … Putin has not said a word in public about [] Navalny in the two weeks since the opposition campaigner’s death at age 47 in an Arctic prison. Russian state television has been almost equally silent. Coverage has been limited to a short statement by the prison authorities … plus a few fleeting television commentaries by state propagandists to deflect blame and tarnish his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, who has announced that she will carry on her husband’s work. … [A]s thousands gathered in [Moscow] for [] Navalny’s funeral, cheering his name, official Moscow acted as if the remembrance was a nonevent. State news ignored it altogether. …”
For years, Putin refused to say Navalny’s name and state television almost never mentioned him. The Kremlin banned Navalny from running in the 2018 Russian presidential election.