The world can’t simply look on as yet another critic of Vladimir Putin dies

London: On an icy cold Moscow morning John Geering, Australia’s ambassador to Russia, trudged through the overnight snow to lay carnations at a makeshift memorial for yet another dead critic of Vladimir Putin.

The Solovetsky Stone, located across from the former headquarters of the notorious NKVD and KGB secret police forces, is an official monument dedicated to the prisoners and victims of Communist terror.

Erected after the fall of the Soviet Union, it has taken on greater significance amid Russia’s march towards authoritarianism. The stone was originally from one of Russia’s most feared gulags, or prisoner labour camps, located at the Solovetsky Islands in the Onega Bay of the Russian White Sea.

Geering let the world know of his actions to mark the death of Alexei Navalny, a man who was arguably the most influential remaining critic of Putin, through the embassy’s social media account.

“Australia holds the Russian Government solely responsible for his treatment and death in prison,” the post said, later repeating the message in the local language.

For a department not known for its ability or capacity to act swiftly or decisively, it was a strong and powerful act. A few hours earlier, Putin’s thugs had cleared away the hundreds of flowers placed on the monument by anonymous Russians in tribute to Navalny.

People lay flowers paying the last respect to Alexei Navalny at the monument with the historical Federal Security Service (FSB, Soviet KGB successor) building in the background.

Geering’s gesture, of course, was not just on behalf of Australia and other democracies across the world, but for the everyday Russians who could not dream of doing so without genuine fear of reprisal or punishment. He and the other Australian diplomats in Moscow are provided with protections and immunities that the average Muscovite could only dream about.

By Saturday evening, the monument to the victims of political repression was buried under a pile of flowers. It is doubtful they will see sunrise. Police allowed mourners to approach the stone one by one before demanding they leave immediately. Some, according to reports, were later arrested.

In Russia, some vigils have led to mass detentions, a sign that even in death, one of Putin’s greatest antagonists, remained a threat to the Kremlin. Across Russia in the 24 hours or so since news of Navalny’s demise, some 340 people had been arrested at memorials for him following his death, human rights group OVD-Info reported.

Across town, men were reportedly spotted filling more garbage bags with flowers near the Kremlin, where another of Putin’s opponents, Boris Nemtsov, was assassinated nine years ago this month. Russian citizens still regularly lay flowers and candles here.

Killed: Imprisoned Russian political leader Alexei Navalny.

In February 2015, an unknown assailant fired seven or eight shots from a Makarov pistol at Nemtsov, 55, killing him almost instantly.

Once again, in Putin’s Russia, a leading political opponent has paid with his life. Navalny, Nemtsov’s heir and friend, died at age 47 in the secrecy of a Russian prison. State Russian media, including RT, had already reported that the prisoner suffered from an embolism, information obtained from anonymous official sources. The initial announcement was then changed to “sudden death syndrome”, then to “unknown”.

Navalny’s death has been reported in Russian media but only fleetingly. As US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said: “If the newspapers of a country are filled with good news, the jails of that country will be filled with good people.”

The focus in most media – albeit buried – has been on the so-called outrageous claims made by Western leaders. None of the news bulletins on Russian state TV led with the news. On the most-watched channel, Rossiya 1, it took nearly 45 minutes to mention him, dedicating just a 35-second report.

It seems Navalny, like Nemtsov, will soon be what George Orwell’s 1984 described as an unperson. In death, just as in his life, the Kremlin is trying to pretend that Alexei Navalny doesn’t exist.

For many, Navalny embodied a more hopeful future for Russia. His death will be unlikely to trigger a wave of outrage and anger on the streets. But for Putin – now also reportedly thinking about sending nuclear weapons into space – he clearly resembled a growing threat.

His death, just like that of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, should be taken as meaning Putin is not as confident either in himself or the future as he wishes to appear. That Putin poisons, detains and kills his opponents is by no means news. But this moment, which comes at a critical time in the war in Ukraine, must be a wake-up call to the world.

This devastating murder comes one month before a Russian presidential election. Of course, a Russian election is anything but free or fair. Any genuine opponent is banned – if they haven’t previously been imprisoned, exiled or killed. Putin is now positioning to be dictator for life.

But Navalny’s death could still be a profound watershed for modern Russia. As Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former political prisoner and CEO of Yukos Oil company, said this weekend the West must stop indulging this charade and declare the election and its result illegitimate.

“Western leaders must never again feed Putin’s belief that being a criminal boss is the same as being a head of state,” he wrote in POLITICO.

“Declaring Putin’s regime illegitimate would also deal a heavy blow to those who, disgracefully, continue to do business with the Kremlin despite sanctions. They, too, should know that their corrupt deals with this regime are worth nothing.”

To honour Navalny’s memory properly, the time for weakness and appeasement must end.

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