There are two stories spreading in Russia right now. One of them is about Russian president who came into power back in 1990s and since then earned a lot of money for himself and his close friends. Briefly this story was told by the most prominent Putin’s critic Alaxey Navalny.
If you believe in this story everything else looks very smoothly. Putin built his own corrupted empire and he is going to stay in power until his death. That is why he decided to silence Navalny and sent a group of killers to poison him with nerve agent Novichok. But Navaly survived and went back to Russia, where he was immediately arrested.
Another story, well group of stories, are told by pro-Kremin media. There is a story that Navalny forced Yves Rocher company to send their goods through his company to steal companies money. There is another story that Russian enemies in European Court of Law aquited Navalny for this case to make Putin unhappy. Another story is about Navalny’s bad health and that is why he fellt into a coma during his trip to Siberia. And story about US intervention who concoted plot that Navalny was poisoned.
All the kremlin stories shows an awful picture of Russia as a besiedged castle and entire world is willing to destroy it. I don’t think it’s true. I think that growing popularity of Navalny, spreading his ideas into regions makes Putin very uncomfortable. That is why he is trying to get rid of him by any means.
There is no events in my town on Jan 23, but I think it’s a good opportunity to join the people who share your views and believe in democracy, free speecha and rule of law.