Has Alexey Navalny moved on from his nationalist past?
The Kremlin’s greatest critic stopped attending far-right rallies many years ago, but he still supports anti-migrant measures
Alexey Navalny became the undisputed leader of anti-Kremlin political forces and anyone opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, largely because of his muckraking videos on corruption in the Kremlin halls of power.
His latest video featured a $1.31bn palatial structure allegedly built for Putin by Russia’s richest oligarchs, on the subtropical Black Sea coast. It has been viewed more than 110 million times on YouTube.
Navalny anchors the 113-minute report filled with drone footage, blueprints and photos of the palace that looks like a villain’s hideaway from a James Bond movie.
Dozens of other anti-corruption videos released by Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation have been seen tens of millions of times, inspiring protests and undermining Putin’s image of a selfless ruler who works tirelessly for the benefit of all Russians.
But one of Navalny’s first clips features a strikingly different message.
In a 2007 pro-gun rights video, Navalny presents himself as a “certified nationalist” who wants to exterminate “flies and cockroaches” – while bearded Muslim men appear in cutaways.
He whips out a gun and shoots an actor wearing a keffiyeh who tried to “attack” him.
Shortly before releasing the video, Navalny was kicked out of Yabloko, Russia’s oldest liberal democratic party, for his “nationalist views” and participation in the Russian March, an annual rally of thousands of far-right nationalists, monarchists and white supremacists.
Some protesters sported closely cropped hair and raised their hands in a Nazi salute.
Navalny attended the Russian March three times and, in 2011, said that each one was “a significant political event, and there is nothing dangerous about it”.
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aljazeera.com
Tom |
