Moscow right now
It hurts. This decision is the biggest mistake that could have happened.
You know what the worst part is? The worst part is that we are not surprised by this decision.
You must understand that we live in a country where the rape of a little girl can be justified, and for this case, which is recognized as fabricated - a real sentence.
It hurts. We're in pain.
No matter how you feel about Alexey Navalny, he is someone who is not afraid; his wife and children are not afraid. They are the kind of people who inspire hope. I intend to believe that. And I believe in them and their power.
Free political prisoners. Free Navalny.
Russia Protests: Info/Donations/Pls RB
I haven’t really seen a post about this, so please take the time to read this and educate yourself on what’s going on in Russia. (Note: I’m American, I do not mean this to speak over Russian voices, I just want to use my relatively sizable following to spread this information. Sources linked in relevant sections.)
What happened:
In August of last year, Alexei Navalny, a prominent anti-corruption activist and political opponent to Putin, was poisoned. He was taken to Germany to recuperate in Berlin. A few days ago, despite direct threats of immediate arrest, he returned to Moscow, where he was detained, to which he responded by urging for mass protests today, January 23rd.
What’s happening now:
This twitter thread does an excellent job detailing the issues highlighted by the people protesting, please take the time to read it. While the protests at hand are largely in response to Navalny, it’s important to understand what other kinds of corruption is being decried.
Donations:
Here is a site to donate to legal funds supporting the protesters and Navalny’s case (The site is in Russian, so you’ll need to translate it. Also donation amounts are in Rubles, $1=76₽ so USD goes a long, long way.)
Here are various news sites to read up on in more specific detail. I just wanted to give a TLDR version to at least spark awareness of what’s happening.
Please feel free to add on more relevant/important information if you have it, especially anywhere else to directly donate!
Putin’s Palace, History of the World’s Largest Bribe - Alexei Navalny
In August 2020, on the order of Vladimir Putin, Navalny was poisoned with “Novichok” chemical warfare agent
He survived, came back to Russia and was arrested right at the airport.
On August 18, 2021, the court unlawfully arrested Alexey navalny and sent him to “Matrosskaya Tishina” prison
For many years, navalny has been fighting for our rights. Now it’s our time to fight for him.
January 23, 14:00. Central streets of your cities. Take to the streets. Don’t stand aside.
WHAT’S GOING ON IN RUSSIA RIGHT NOW
Some of you might’ve heard about the situation with the government vs opposition that we’re dealing with right now, but I’m gonna give a brief explanation, how it started / how it’s going so to say.
In August 2020 Alexey Navalny, one of the leaders of the russian opposition, was poisoned with a nerve agent “Novichok”, which was a clear murder attempt. He was transported to Germany to get proper care and over there, while recovering, he and his team had a series of investigations of his murder attempt and basically they proved that it was all organised by the government / FSB (Federal Security Service of Russia / P*tin. He’s posted videos about his investigation, here’s the one of him exposing the whole killer team. He also made another video where he undercover called one of the killers and that dude basically confirmed it all, you can watch it here, english subtitles provided on both videos. I know it all feels like some crazy tv show, trust me i’m still speechless.
Anyway, last week he announced that he’s ready to go back home to Russia. Thousands of people came to the airport to show their support, but the bunker grandpa (our joke of a president) was not happy with that and police was everywhere at that airport taking people for doing nothing but standing there. Right when the plane was about to land, they changed the airports (*pretends to be shocked*). They landed and at the customs Alexey was detained by police. The reasons: something that they imagined themselves but also Alexey has a probation and he wasn’t checking at the Moscow police station twice a month….. since he was in Germany recovering from a murder attempt.
The next day they somehow held a court hearing right at the police station which is literally against the law and he’s being arresting for 30 days. And that gives everyone a push. In his videos he asks people not to protest for him but to protest for themselves and their right to have a voice and for that voice to be heard and not be murdered and, if you’re not dead, be jailed because you have a different opinion. For years our country has been literally degrading, swimming in the corruption and lies just so Mr. Poo has his throne. Elections are being forged, at this point everyone knows about it but they frightened people enough to not say a word. The whole world thinks so low of us or scared of us because of the power that the Tsar holds and smart, reasonable people here are so fed up with that.
And the final part and what was the last drop of patience for lost of people here, Navalny’s team posted a whole film-investigation about the palace P*tin owns on the coast of the Black sea which was built with the stolen money. Just a few highlights about that palace: the approximate cost of it is around 100 billion rubbles / $1,4 billion, the size of it is over 17,6k square meters, it has tea/wine houses, wine gardens, amphitheatre, a hockey rink, casino, furniture with millions on price tags, hookah bar, bedchambers with jacuzzis, and people’s personal faves, aqua disco, $2k toilet brushes with toilet paper holders, a pole at the hookah bar and a room for dirt. You can watch the whole video here, trust me you won’t regret it. It’s smashing all the views records.
Just in comparison to the cost of only that palace, our pensions for people of age are around 10k rubbles / $130, our standard salaries are around $300 a month and that if you’re lucky, in the regions it can be twice less. During the pandemic the government gave people n o t h i n g that could’ve helped even a tiny bit. But golden toilet brushes at the Black sea cost are always provided.
Tomorrow, January 23rd, there are going to be mass protests all across the country where people want to show their civil position, to scream for the rights that are being taken away from us with every day passing with more and more ridiculous laws, to show support to Alexey and his family and ask for his freedom, and just to show that people want to see their homeland get justice, respect and love it deserves. Chances of things getting messy are very high since the government doesn’t allow us to have peaceful protests (unless its allowed protests which like…they never allow them so here’s another way of silencing us). I’ll be posting things about it as soon as I know, the ways to help and just spread information about what we have to deal with.
For now I’m gonna leave a link to an FBK site / Anti-Corruption Foundation, which is a non profit organization that investigates corruption cases in Russia. They also have a donation page which could always use some help, especially on the eve of protests (e.g. provide free lawyers to help people get out of police in case of arrests on protests).
