Valery, another Muscovite at the cemetery, who withheld his last name for security reasons, said he had little hope for the future and that after Navalny’s death, that “something has really broken” inside of him.Just several days after her husband’s death, Navalnaya expressed determination to keep his mission alive.In the past month, she has addressed the European Parliament, met with United States President Joe Biden, and urged Western countries not to recognize the results of Russia’s election. She has also called on the West to impose more sanctions on those close to Putin.Leading up to the election, Navalny’s team urged supporters to cast their ballots for any candidate other than Putin, or to invalidate them by choosing two or more candidates. They also had dozens of volunteers call ordinary Russians to ask them about their grievances and try to turn them against Putin.The phone campaign was announced by Navalny over the summer, and since then “tens of thousands” of calls were made, Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s top strategist, said a video. “We will not stop doing that,” he vowed.Volkov also gave a video address shortly after Navalny’s death in an effort to rally supporters, and perhaps tap into his longtime ally’s spirit of persistence. “It will be a monument to Alexei’s cause if you and I live to see how this regime disintegrates before Putin’s eyes,” he said.Still, the Putin opposition’s uphill battle has only gotten steeper with its leaders in exile.“(Putin’s) regime pushes people out of the country because it understands very well that the possibilities of influencing political processes in Russia from abroad are minimal,” said Nikolay Petrov, a visiting researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.Sunday’s “Noon Against Putin” protest will be a test of how much Navalny’s team can do in Russia from abroad, said Sam Greene, a director at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington.“One part of what they want to do is to send a message to those who remain in Russia that you’re not alone, that the opposition in exile has their back to a certain extent and will support them,” said Greene. “But then the question is, how do they support them?”
Source link
