While the main Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny called from his prison not to be afraid despite the repression, Monday January 17, Michel Eltchaninoff, journalist and editor-in-chief of Philosophy Magazine, sees it “a form of outspokenness, insolence and ironclad determination”. “It corresponds to the character who has already shown a form of freedom of tone”, declares the specialist of Russia, author of Lenin Walked on the Moon: The Crazy Story of Russian Cosmists and Transhumanists (Editions Actes Sud). According to him, “brave demonstrators, alone with placards” were arrested on Monday.
franceinfo: Does it surprise you that he manages to get people talking about him, that he arrives via his feed to his Instagram account?
Michel Eltchaninoff: No, it really corresponds to the character who has already shown for quite a few years a form of outspokenness, outspokenness, insolence and unfailing determination. They tried to poison him a year and a half ago and now he is completely at the mercy of Russian power, but he regularly publishes a form of prison diary and, through these messages, he continues to make politics. He talks about what he does in prison. He talks about what he can buy with the 9,000 roubles, that is to say the 100 euros he has in prison, and he criticizes inflation in Russia. In short, he is someone who has an unfailing determination. He is convinced of representing the future of Russia, of being Putin’s number one opponent. And so, for now, he retains that freedom and determination.
The media close to power do not relay these videos, but can they infuse into Russian society thanks to social networks?
Yes, we saw that last year, when his arrest and imprisonment were accompanied by a series of demonstrations all over Russia, and not only in the major western cities of Russia, but also in Siberia and a everywhere. We saw a lot of messages on Tik Tok, calls to demonstrate, but also on YouTube, where his great documentary on Putin’s palace has been seen millions of times [121 millions de fois], and on all communication networks.
“Even today, Navalny posts a message for the first anniversary of his return to Russia and he continues to say: ‘Don’t be afraid, it is our fear that prevents us from winning our fight against a dictatorship.'”
Michel Eltchaninoff, journalistat franceinfo
Do these messages therefore generate calls for his release in Russia?
Today, for example, there are courageous demonstrators who picketed, alone with placards. Normally it’s allowed by law because it’s not a mass protest, but those few people were all arrested. Alexeï Navalny’s movement, the anti-corruption fund, has been suppressed by a law which accuses certain organizations of extremism, terrorism, or even neo-Nazism. So for a year in Russia, the arrest of Navalny has been followed by a repression unprecedented for several decades.
What strategy is the Kremlin adopting?
Vladimir Putin has always refused to pronounce the name of Alexei Navalny. His goal is for him to stay as long as possible in prison, for people to end up forgetting him and, as is often done in Russian prisons, to end up breaking him psychologically. In his last message, Navalny explains that when he takes sewing lessons, a person sits next to him, records him and, for example, when he turns his head, this person tells him “stop looking out the window, you’re there to work”. We exert psychological pressure on him every second. The goal, of course, is to break it.