Navalny Poisoning Scandal, or the sad illustration of Western relentlessness against Russia
Because, once again, the West is trying to bring down the great power that is the Russian Federation — in vain.
It is now well-known and anchored in the mores of our beloved and tender society : the enemy number one, and the one that will remain so forever, is the Eastern block. Russia. And this for a century : from the October Revolution of 1917 — which unknowingly signed the beginnings of the Cold War — to the end of the Second World War — which marked the constitution of the two famous blocs of the West and the East — and the arms race, the “détente” and collapse of the Soviet Union — which, with a violent thunderclap, signalled the “victory” of the West (USA), indicating, in a certain way but very clearly, that the one and only [world] power that remained and now ruled the world was the United States of America.
During my 4 long and last years of schooling, I was constantly rebuffed about the importance of Western society, about the importance of the United States of America, which, with its incredible strength and courage that no other people can possess, saved the world and, according to the legend, brought peace to the world.
Without “us” — the Western Europe and North America, the “alliance” that we both form [against the enemies of the East] — there would be nothing. We wouldn’t be there. I was always made to understand that Western society was the best thing that happened in this world, that after all the tragic events of the past, I was born and grew up on the “good side”. This was of course not the case for the people from the East, from the “other side”.
This indoctrination, propaganda aimed at damaging, breaking and rendering the image of Eastern Europe, and more precisely the one of Russia, could not be more false, has led a majority — if not everyone — of people to see this “side of the globe” as a less than nothing, as the laughing stock of the whole world. Nevertheless, although the former Soviet states (commonly referred to by Russia as the « near abroad ») have managed, with difficulty for most of them, the crisis caused by the collapse of the USSR, Russia has managed to pull through.
Determined to regain its lost greatness and power, the country calls, as a priority, for « abandoning the block mentality », known as “bipolar”, as presented by Dmitri Medvedev on July 15, 2008, in favor of a diplomacy based on « flexible forms of participation in multiparty structures », in other words : a « network » diplomacy. In fact, this action is meant to be the beginning of the reaffirmation of Russian power — wanting to show the West that it is in the process of regaining its superpower status and that, henceforth, the time when they dictated its conditions of conduct has come to an end.
Thus, under the governance of a certain Vladimir Putin, who is aiming for the return of a « strong state », it reinforces its state control over the media and the economy — notably over the oligarchs -, takes advantage, thanks to the rise in the price of oil, between 2000 and 2012, of an important return to growth, and regains the power of its sphere of influence lost in the 1990s. And it is important to note that not only is Russia pursuing with more means and results its actions (=epopoeia) in the « near abroad », but also outside this zone (missions in Syria, pro-Russian political success in Bulgaria, …).
The country has risen with strength and power never before seen. Over the years, it has established itself as an undeniable world power and a major partner in economic, military and political terms — much to the chagrin of Westerners, who have not seen this sudden rise to power with a good eye. Russia has adopted this policy of openness to the world — taking care not to interfere in its partners’ internal politics — , that of a state powerful by law and not by fear (as it was the case in the past). By allying notably itself with important partners/powers (China, Turkey, to name but two), hated (and feared, especially for China) by the West, it showed that it was playing and occupying (from now on) an important place in the big league — precisely where the West had shrugged its shoulders in imagining the idea that a power, at the time, economically and demographically diminished could have the pretension of meddling in the « big boys’ business ».
Since then, Westerners have been trying, in vain, to bring Russia down, to ruin it, to make it dirty and to make sure that, this time, it never gets up again. There are many sexual, political, diplomatic “scandals” that the West has invented to bring the country down. There are many so-called “hot” affairs imagined and fabricated by the West against Russia — and the Navalny scandal is no exception. In fact, it is yet and just another Western machination among hundreds of others, illustrating the extreme sadness of the West’s relentlessness against Russia.
Alexei Navalny, lawyer by profession, is a Russian political activist and opponent of President Vladimir Putin’s regime, and also founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, an NGO fighting government corruption. A Russian citizen employed as an ennemy against his own country on behalf of the West, who is aiming for a new attempt, using a pseudo “political activist” who is, however and ironically, very little known to the Russian population (1% popularity rating, which did not exceed 6% in the past) despite what mass-media say, to destabilise and topple the Russian power, more precisely Putin’s, so that, as said above, it ceases to shine and make the rest of the world tremble, and to have a total control on its economy, ressources — in short, its management — as in the « good old days » between 1991 and 1999.
Navalny is, in fact, a gnat among many others, known to the Russian authorities for his various attempts to destabilise power. However, he created scandal in August 2020 following the poisoning of which he was a victim. Indeed, on August 20, 2020, he was urgently hospitalised in an intensive care unit of the hospital in Omsk, Siberia, after a worsening of his state of health that plunged him into a coma during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow. His family directly hypothesised that he was poisoned by the tea he drank at the airport.
According to doctors at Omsk hospital, on admission, Alexei Navalny « was subjected to a wide range of narcotics, synthetic psychodetic and medicinal substances, including cholinesterase inhibitors — the results were negative », said Aleksandr Sabayev, a toxicologist and head of Omsk’s No. 1 emergency hospital. On August 22, still unconscious, he was transferred to the Charity Hospital in Berlin for treatment. And according to the hospital’s doctors, traces of cholinesterase inhibitors were detected by tests carried out on the patient. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Politics, Josep Barrell, are calling Moscow to investigate the alleged poisoning of the lawyer « in detail » and « in full transparency » and to bring the people responsible for the poisoning to justice.
Statements not well received by the President of the Duma, who announced that he would refer the matter to the Duma’s Security Committee to find out whether Havalny had not been the victim of « provocation by Germany and other European Union countries » which had attempted to « harm the health of a Russian citizen in order to create tensions in Russia. » Moscow regrets, moreover, that Berlin has still not responded to the request for legal aid sent on August 27 to the German authorities by Russia’s national prosecutor’s office, in order to launch an investigation into the Alexei Navalny Scandal.
The lawyer and political activist is then kept in an artificial coma. On August 24, his state of health was considered « serious » but his life was « not immediately threatened. » On August 28, his condition improved, according to the Berlin hospital, but the doctors were still « wary of any progonosis on the consequences of this serious poisoning. » On September 2, the German government stated that it had « unequivocal proof » of the use of a “Novitchok” type nerve agent against the Russian opponent, an assertion confirmed on September 14 by two French and Swedish OPCW reference laboratories. But conversely, the Russian authorities claim that their analyses did not detect the presence of any toxic substance.
On September 14, during a telephone interview with French President Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Putin did not rule out the possibility that Navalny may have poisoned himself, a hypothesis rejected by the French Head of State, as well as another lead still evoked by Putin, which leads to Latvia, where one of the creators of the Novitchok is said to live. On September 15, a week after he came out his artificial coma, Alexei Navalny expressed himself publicly for the first time via his Instagram account, where he published a picture of himself surrounded by his family when he woke up — he wrote : « I still can hardly do anything but yesterday [Monday], I was able to breathe on my own for a whole day. It’s an astonishing process that is underestimated by many. I recommend it. I miss you. »
Asked about a possible return to Russia after his recovery, his spokesman declared that it had « never been a question of anything else. » « I understand that one might ask the question, but I nevertheless find it strange to think that [he] would choose exile. » For his part, the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, said that « everyone would be happy » if Alexei Navalny recovered and was « free to return to Russia » from Germany. But he also notified Moscow’s incomprehension about the fact that French and Swedish laboratories were able to test the medical samples but not Russia, which did not have access to them.
On September 22, 2020, Navalny left the hospital and the doctors considered that a « full recovery » was possible.
On September 25, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested that the government was facing a « new staging on the theme of the imaginary use of chemical weapons, this time not in Syria or Great Britain, but at home, in Russia. » On November 12, the Russian chancery claims to have « every reason » to believe that the « penetration of chemical warfare agents » into Navalny’s body could have taken place « in Germany or on the plane » carrying him to the Charity Hospital, but does not specify what those reasons are exactly. The Russian investigative website The Insider, known for exposing fake news in Russian media, revealed that « the Kremlin has become confused in its versions about the poisoning of Alexei Navalny » — by listing some of these versions in an article published on September 25, the website ironically headlines : « There was no poison ! There was, but not Novitchok ! It’s the Novitchok but not ours ! It was ours but he drank it himself ! »
On October 1st, the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the OPCW submitted to the organisation a proposal to send experts to Russia to work on the elucidation of the Navalny Affair with Russian specialists the field. On the same day, Alexei Navalny denounced the inaction of the Russian judiciary which was reluctant to open an investigation and expressed his conviction that Vladimir Putin was the instigator of his poisoning in an interview with journalists from the German weekly Der Spiegel.
On October 6, the OPCW confirmed that a Novitchok-type substance was found in Navalny’s body.
On 14 December, the Russian investigative website Bellingcat published an investigative report on the lawyer’s poisoning, written in collaboration with journalists from CNN, Der Spiegel and The Insider. The report indicates that Navalny has been followed since 2017 and, in particular, during his trip to Tomsk by FSB agents specialised in chemicals — which is quite normal : for the good and security of the Nation, it is obvious that the secret services are hunting down the man who could be a (potential) danger to the stability of the country.
In the framework of this investigation, the same media revealed on December 21, 2020, that Alexei Navalny, having set up Konstantin Kudryatvtsev, an FSB agent, managed to get him to confess without his knowledge that an assassination attempt had indeed taken place against him — which is totally stupid. Firstly, how could a poisoner talk freely and without any fear to someone he does not know on his mobile phone, without even using Whatsapp, Signal or even Telegram ? Secondly, listening to the detail of the phone call, it is clearly doubtful that it is Navalny who is speaking with this person, since this same person is supposed to have worked on Alexei Navalny’s case for at least three years, and he would not recognize Alexei Navalny’s voice, however easily recognizable ? Totally impossible. And thirdly, Navalny’s poisoned clothes were handed over to this so-called “poisoner”, obviously without any particular protocol. Also, if it was the FSB that poisoned Navalny, as they say, why are there agents at the hospital where he’s hospitalised ? It is only logical that when you poison someone, you don’t rush directly to the hospital where the victim is hospitalised to find out where the process is.
The clinical details of the poisoning, required by Moscow, are published in The Lancet, the highly respected and reliable British scientific journal, at the end of 2020.
Due to his convalescence in Germany, Alexei Navalny was unable to meet the requirements of his parole, which required him to go to Moscow. Indeed, as his probation period ended on November 30, 2020, a summons was sent to him on November 28, 2020, requiring his presence the following day at 9am. This breach of probation led to the lifting of the summons. When he returned to the Russian capital, he was therefore threatened to serve the 3.5 years in prison he had received at his trial in 2014. For the British news weekly The Economist, this summons was obviously a pretext to prevent him from « returning freely to Russia ».
In a video posted on his Instagram account on 13 January 2021, Alexei Navalny announces that he bought plane tickets for a return trip to Russia. On this date, he boarded a Pobeda plane for a take-off from the German airport Berlin-Brandenburg. The plane’s landing, initially planned at Vnukovo airport, was diverted to Sheremetyevo airport, another Moscow airport located further north. The pilot and air staff justified this manoeuvre with a « technical problem », stating that « an aircraft went off the runway ». On his arrival at the customs post, the lawyer and political activist was arrested by agents of the federal penitentiary service.
In a video published on Youtube on January 19, 2021, resulting from an investigation conducted by his Foundation against Corruption (FBK), Alexei Navalny denounces the pomp and funding of « Putin’s palace », a huge residence with many facilities (heliport, skating rink, casino, swimming pool, spa, aquadiscotheque…). The political opponent notably lends the Russian President a « pathological » taste for luxury and details financial arrangements whose aim is to « create a buffer around the palace » in relation to its real owner. Only three days after its publication, the video, which lasts nearly two hours, has been viewed more than 100 million times, as reported by the source Stratpol. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reacts by saying he has not seen it but, at the same time, indicates that nothing it says is true.
Firstly, what proves that this is the home of the Russian President ? Nothing, apart from a two-hour Youtube video and unfounded and unsubstantiated claims. Secondly, and even if it is proved to be Putin’s residence, what and why does it matter ? Vladimir Putin is a powerful man, the strong man of Russia, wealthy, he has the right and can afford absolutely everything he wants — and if it involves a gigantic mansion, then let him enjoy it. That’s his business, not ours. The West is looking for the slightest little thing that could help them demonise, destabilise and bring Putin and his country down.
On February 2, 2021, he was sentenced by a Moscow court to three and a half years in prison after being found guilty of violating his judicial supervision while he had been in Germany since August 2020 due to his poisoning. Although his lawyer has announced that he will appeal, the lawyer and political opponent is serving his sentence behind bars. On February 17, 2021, the European Court of Human Rights demanded his immediate release due to the « magnitude of the risk to life » of Alexei Navalny. In mid-January 2021, several large and violent demonstrations took place across Russia to protest against the imprisonment of the political opponent — demonstrations, of course, orchestrated by the West. The Russian administration described this as « blatant interference by a foreign power in the manipulation of the people. »
The fact is that Westerners have been undergoing protests of all kinds for some time, and they don’t like the fact that it’s not happening in Russia or China. As mentioned above, the West’s number one objective is to bring Vladimir Putin and Russia down and create chaos by encouraging corruption, as was the case after the fall of the USSR — except that Russian dignitaries have understood this and are now doing everything they can to bring their economy up to the level of the West. The second most powerful country in the world despite all the attacks of all kinds organised by the West. Today, Putin has launched his economic plan, which is currently underway, but the West is doing everything to discredit him, except that it will never succeed. The machine is running. As a reminder, the Russian Federation is one of the few countries in the world that can survive on its own without outside help for years — the country is simply blessed.
It is quite funny but sad at the same time to see that in Churchill’s time, beautiful courtesans, such as Mata Hari, were trained and commissioned to seduce high-ranking Soviet dignitaries in order to extract vital information and, at the same time, bring them down — today, it is men without a shred of credibility who are employed and trained for a few months in order to send them to wreak havoc on an enemy country and destabilise its power. And one is still surprised that it doesn’t work ?
Navalny is a simple puppet used by the American authorities to destabilise Putin’s regime. He is a Russian citizen employed as an enemy on behalf of the Western powers, and the evidence of this affiliation are blatant :
In October 2011, his e-mail correspondence was made public by a hacker with the aim of showing that « Navalny is a corrupt ultra-nationalist financed by the American authorities ». However, the authenticity of the emails was not fully confirmed by Navalny. According to these emails, in 2006, the political movement DA!, which Navalny helped to create, received funding from the US National Endowment for Democracy.
In 2010, Alexei Navalny is leaving to study at Yale University as part of the Yale World Fellows programme, which aims to develop a network of leaders connected to Yale and committed to making the world a « better place ». According to the official Russian media, Russia Today, he was sent there by the American ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, to prepare for an « Orange Revolution » in Russia.
Several articles present Alexei Navalny as an American agent : for Alex Jones, Navalny is an « agent of sedition financed by the United States ». The American economist and journalist Paul Craig Roberts says that « Russia has every reason to have doubts about the political opposition that seems to be united around Alexei Navalny. Just like the “revolutions of colour” in the post-Soviet space, the Russian opposition is financed with American means. Washington does not want Russia to be able to contradict its will. » These articles are described by various media as those of Russian propaganda agents spreading conspiracy theories.
In August 2013, the Russian Prosecutor’s Office announced that during checks on the campaign accounts for the election of the Mayor of Moscow, Alexei Navalny obtained foreign funding from more than 300 foreign individuals and legal entities from 46 countries including the United States, Finland, Great Britain, Switzerland and Canada. His participation in the “Narod” organisation (of which he is a co-founder) triggered a controversy, which combined extreme left-wing and extreme right-wing positions.
In 2008, the organisation approached groups known for their racist positions, such as the « movement against illegal immigration », banned in 2011 by the justice system for extremism. Navalny also participated in an ultra-nationalist march in 2011, one of the slogans of which was « Stop feeding the Caucasus! ». He regularly participates in the Russian March which led to his expulsion in 2007 from the opposition Yabloko Party, of which he was then a member.
In August 2013, during the electoral campaign for the Moscow mayoralty election, Navalny presented his programme based mainly on the fight against corruption and immigration. He notably declared : « I looked at the statistics. Do you know that nearly 50% of crimes and offences are committed by foreigners ? ».
In December 2014, Alexei Navalny declared that « the problem of illegal immigration to Russia was a hundred times greater than Ukraine » and added that he would not give the Crimea back to Ukraine if he had the power to do so.
Navalny has been arrested, charged and convicted several times in Russia. The United States, the European Union and the Council of Europe consider him to be a victim of « political trials ».
On July 31, 2012, Navalny is charged by the Federal Commission of Inquiry with large-scale theft because of the heavy financial losses of Kirovles, a state-owned logging company. He faces up to ten years in prison. He is accused of embezzling sixteen million roubles (€377,000) from this logging company when he was an advisor to the governor of Kirov oblast, Nikita Bielykh.
On July 18, 2013, he was found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to five years in camp for embezzling 400,000 euros to the detriment of the logging company. On appeal, the sentence was reduced to a suspended sentence.
In February 2016, the European Court of Human Rights condemns Russia to pay 79,000 euros to Navalny and his associate Piotr Ofitserov because the trial was not fair.
In November 2016, the Russian Supreme Court overturned the first judgement and ordered a retrial. The retrial took place in January and February 2017 and Navalny was again given a five-year suspended prison sentence for embezzlement and a 500,000 rouble fine.
In August 2013, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, President of the Liberal Democratic Party, asked the Ministry of the Interior to open an investigation into the financing of the Navalny election campaign on the basis of IP addresses (indicating the location of the transaction and not the nationality of the donor). Navalny denied the accusations, claiming that the prosecutors were « simpleton ». The accusation has not been followed up.
In 2008, in order to deal with the failings of the Russian postal service and at a time when mail order sales of their products correspond to 4 million parcels delivered annually, the Russian subsidiary of the Yves Rocher group, Yves Rocher Vostok called on Glavpodpiska, a logistics company owned by the Oleg brothers and Alexeï Navalny. On December 10, 2012, Bruno Leproux, CEO of Yves Rocher Vostok asked the Russian investigation committee to establish whether Glavpodpiska had been over-invoicing. On December 30, 2014, Alexeï Navalny is sentenced in this case to three and a half years suspended imprisonment by the Moscow court for having embezzled, according to the prosecution, nearly 26 million roubles (400,000 euros) belonging to Yves Rocher Vostok. His brother Oleg was sentenced to three and a half years. Oleg Navalny is serving his sentence in a penal colony in the Orel oblast and is released in June 2018.
In October 2017, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that « the services [provided by the Navalny brothers’ company] corresponded to those in the contracts », that « the national courts did not indicate a method which would have made it possible to identify a ground for reprehensible personal enrichment », that « the decisions handed down by the domestic courts were arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable », and that « the fairness of the criminal proceedings […] was compromised ». It therefore ordered Russia to pay 10,000 euros to each of the Navalny brothers.
In June 2018, Oleg and Alexei Navalny filed a complaint in France against Yves Rocher for « slanderous denunciation » considering that the complaint filed against them by Yves Rocher Vostok in 2012 was in fact an attack by the Russian government against them with the support of Yves Rocher Vostok. They are represented by lawyer William Bourdon and are to be heard by an examining magistrate of the Vannes court on April 30, 2019.
In December 2020, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened an investigation into “fraud” against Navalny. Navalny is accused of having used part of the donations made by private individuals mainly to the Anti-Corruption Foundation for his personal needs. The amount of the alleged swindle is estimated at 356 million roubles or about 4 million euros. According to Navalny, the opening of this investigation, which took place the day before the end of his parole period, is only intended to dissuade him from returning to Russia.
Vladimir Putin has no reason to want the death of one of his many citizens, because what would he gain from killing Navalny ? Nothing. Since he is nobody. Navalny is just a living corpse, a corpse that walks but no longer has a future, a political corpse. One more among many.
The foreign secret services are therefore very keen on the Navalny project because :
1) Alexei Navalny has cost them a lot of money, it is a major investment, so it would also be a question of saving Alexei Navalny who would be to the Anglo-American secret services what Lenin was to the German secret services.
2) It is simply a struggle between the Russian and Anglo-American secret services, that is to say that the Anglo-American secret services are seeking reprisals against the Russian secret services precisely for having totally unmasked and ridiculed one of their main assets which was Alexei Navalny — it is therefore a kind of “secret service war” which is likely to last for a long time to come.
3) This manipulation concerns the West more than a desire to change the situation inside Russia — it is a question of forcing Europeans, in particular, to take sanctions against Russia.
The Navalny Poisoning Scandal underlines the absolute sadness of Western imperialism about its absolute desire to destroy the great power that is the Russian Federation.
