In Russia, there is a very famous journalist named Alexei Navalny. He strives to expose the inner workings of the Russian government system and open the curtains to the empire of bribery and corruption in which Putin has built himself with the billionaires of Russia. In this blog we’ll talk about the general details of the corruption happening in Russia and how Navalny was able to expose it; adding him to Russian governments hit list.
Russia's corruption
When you hear Putin’s name, what do you think of first? For most people around the world, he would give off this image of being a “macho” man. Many of you have probably seen pictures and videos of him doing crazy and outlandish things such as surveying the land on a horse while shirtless or him demonstrating his martial art skills. Using these propaganda-like shoots, he keeps this image of being powerful in the public eye, keeping his approval ratings high since people like to see their leader looking mighty and strong. However, all of this effort to keep himself looking powerful is all just a ploy to avert the attention of the people from his corruption ring that essentially runs the country, and is why he has been in office for so long. Russia’s government is built on the relationship Putin has with the billionaires of Russia. These billionaires are very influential people in Russia as they are the big CEO’s who control the companies that produce Russia’s most important trades; oil, gas, telecoms and many more. These billionaires work together with Putin by giving favors to each other, essentially scratching each other’s back in order to keep Putin at the top and ensure that this cycle keeps going. Thanks to Navalny and his team from the Anti-Corruption Federation (FBK), all this information is available to the public in the form of long documentaries on YouTube. They document and inform people on the corruption in which many political figures in Russia undertake.
The man putin fears the most
Alexei Navalny is a very ‘interesting’ journalist. His end goal is not to commit a ‘coup detat’ on the Russian government. He does not wish to become the new leader of Russia, but instead wishes to expose how Russia is being run to the people and help stop this cycle of corruption. An easy way to describe the Russian government is by picturing a house of cards. Putin is at the top, while the cards below are the rich billionaires of Russia. They help Putin out with financial needs, and Putin helps them out by turning a blind eye to the shady things they do. If Navalny were to expose this, these billionaires wouldn’t be affected as much as Putin since they’re able to flee the country. Putin however has to stay in the country and essentially take the blame for everything. Since he is at the top of the house of cards, he falls the farthest, which is why Putin fears Navalny so much. Due to this, Putin has ordered many questionable decisions in an effort to stop Navalny. He even resorted to poisoning him with a Soviet nerve agent. They were used by the Soviet to quietly kill people, leaving no trace. Navalny had to be rushed to the hospital, but the local hospital was surrounded by government agents. His doctor at the time saw many symptoms of poisoning, so he had him get tested. However, when the results came back it tested negative for poisoning. Navalny was then transferred to a private hospital in Germany where he was tested again, but this time resulted in a positive test for poisoning. This meant that someone in the hospital had tampered with the results, and essentially tried to finish Navalny for good. During this time, he was in the process of filming and editing one of his biggest documentaries yet. This documentary would expose the different palaces in which Putin lived in, which were given to him by his rich billionaire friends. So, after recovering, he decided he wanted to go back to Russia and upload it as he wanted to do it when he was in his homeland, not in a foreign country. He was then arrested on his return to Moscow.
the future of the russian people...
While Navalny was being arrested, his team uploaded the video to YouTube. Finally, Putin’s corruption empire is one step closer to crumbling. The documentary instantly went viral hitting number one in the YouTube trending page. It very quickly reached 110 million views and as a result, Putin’s empire has been exposed to the public for everyone in the world to see. Now that the people know the truth of how their country runs, many of them have took to the streets to protest this unfair system. As of now, Navalny is serving prison time due to the manipulation of the judicial system by the Russian government. This does help silence Navalny for a short period of time, but all it does is add fuel to the fire as now the people know that their government is rooted with corruption. If you have time, I highly recommend you watch the video linked below as it provides a clear explanation of the situation.
I had no idea this complex and intricate level of corruption was happening within Russia. Reading this article makes me want to further explore the topic by reading Navalny's articles, as well as conducting my own research.