EDITORIAL — A catalyst or a whimper

The latest news involving Putin critic and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is tragic; Russian authorities reported that the 47-year-old allegedly just died suddenly in his Arctic prison colony.

Just the day before he allegedly died he was still seen in good humor and health, leading to speculations that he had been murdered.

Whether true or not, the blame fell on the Russia president. Navalny isn’t the only Putin opponent to die suddenly. Remember Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin who marched on Moscow in what was seen as a coup against Putin? He died in a “plane crash.”

Answers are never easy to get in an authoritarian country. As of this writing even Navalny’s family has not been allowed to get custody of his body, fueling even more suspicions that authorities want certain chemicals to disappear from his body first before handing it over.

Then there is the active movement to commit Navalny to oblivion. People gathering to mourn Navalny in makeshift memorials in Moscow and across Russia are being arrested for “protesting” against the government. Any talk about Navalny whether in the news or just in public is being discouraged.

Navalny’s widow has vowed to continue her husband’s fight; she called it the fight for a free Russia.

Putin better beware; some deaths can serve as a catalyst for social upheaval. Like in the case of Ninoy Aquino, Martin Luther King Jr., George Floyd, and to a lesser extent, that of Mahsa Amini. Sometimes it just takes a little time for the outrage to gather momentum.

Then again, perhaps it could be just a whimper and nothing will happen and life will go on in Russia --minus one critic of an authoritarian regime.

If the latter happens then perhaps Russia does deserve to be in the situation it is now; run by a dictator setting himself to rule for life, treated like a pariah by the world because of its actions in Ukraine, engaged in a war that will require more and more forced conscriptions, sanctioned by different international bodies, and on the way to ruin.