Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Projects
    • Corporate Taxation in a Globalised Era
    • US Election 2020
    • The Transformation of Work
    • The Coronavirus Crisis and the Welfare State
    • Just Transition
    • Artificial intelligence, work and society
    • What is inequality?
    • Europe 2025
    • The Crisis Of Globalisation
  • Audiovisual
    • Audio Podcast
    • Video Podcasts
    • Social Europe Talk Videos
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Shop
  • Membership
  • Ads
  • Newsletter

Can Navalny take down Putin?

by Nina L Khrushcheva on 17th February 2021 @ninakhrushcheva

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on LinkedIn

Today’s protest movement has a charismatic and sympathetic leader but Putin has spent the last decade consolidating a police state.

Navalny,Putin
Nina L Khrushcheva

There are arguably two moments in the last century when a wrecking ball was taken to Russia’s political regime. In 1917, the Bolshevik revolution toppled the country’s teetering monarchy. And, in 1991, an abortive coup by Marxist-Leninist hardliners against the reformist Mikhail Gorbachev accelerated the tottering Soviet Union’s collapse. Does the wave of protests which have swept Russia in recent weeks herald another regime change?

Not likely. To be sure, unlike the protests that shook Russia in 2011-12 in response to Vladimir Putin’s third inauguration as president, today’s protest movement has a charismatic and sympathetic leader. Not only has Alexei Navalny been a relentless anti-corruption advocate for years; when he was arrested last month, he had just returned from Germany—where he had spent months recovering, after being poisoned with the Kremlin’s favourite nerve agent, Novichok—to continue confronting Putin’s regime.

But, unlike the twilight of the czars and the Soviets, Putin’s regime is neither teetering nor tottering. Putin has spent the last decade consolidating a police state and he is prepared to use every available tool to retain power. The leader who invaded Ukraine and illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, to bolster his foundering approval rating, and who secured a constitutional amendment last year, so that he could remain president for life, is not about to be forced from power by a movement of weekend protesters.

Excessive, irrational

Yet there is something particularly excessive, even irrational, about Putin’s suppression of Navalny, his associates and his supporters. Already, law-enforcement officers have detained thousands (including journalists), often using brutal tactics. The government has also blocked ‘social media’ platforms, because they are supposedly fuelling unrest.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin-controlled television networks endlessly broadcast fawning stories about Putin and every effort is being made to discredit the protest movement. By effectively shutting down central Moscow, including public transport leading to it, the government has severely inconvenienced many citizens—and made it seem like Navalny’s fault. The government wants ‘peaceful city-dwellers’ to be able to do their weekend shopping, the narrative goes, but the ‘law-breaking’ protesters, much like ‘terrorists’, insist on disrupting ‘normal’ life.

Join our growing community newsletter!

"Social Europe publishes thought-provoking articles on the big political and economic issues of our time analysed from a European viewpoint. Indispensable reading!"

Polly Toynbee

Columnist for The Guardian

Thank you very much for your interest! Now please check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

By the Kremlin’s logic, when foreign leaders, journalists, and diplomats speak out in support of the opposition, they are merely proving that Navalny is the factotum of a global plot to destabilise Russia. To drive this point home, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently expelled three European diplomats for attending Navalny rallies—while Josep Borrell, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, was visiting Moscow, no less.

‘Enemy of the state’

The Kremlin is treating Navalny himself accordingly—as an enemy of the state. Navalny’s farcical court hearings since his return from Germany recall Stalin’s show trials in the 1930s, with one key difference: Navalny is not capitulating to the dictator by confessing his ‘crimes’. During the proceedings, Navalny rebuked the state’s lawlessness and denounced his sentence—almost three years in a penal colony—as illegitimate.

Moreover, Navalny recently released a viral video accusing Putin of using fraudulently secured funds to build a billion-dollar palace on the Black Sea. While Russians expect their leaders to be corrupt, Navalny consistently puts into perspective the scale of the riches that corruption generates. (He did the same with his 2017 investigation into then prime minister, Dmitri Medvedev.)

Navalny’s attacks thus directly undermine Putin. In this sense, Navalny is not like one of Stalin’s Trotskyist targets: he is Trotsky himself. And he needs to be purged.


We need your help! Please join our mission to improve public policy debates.


As you may know, Social Europe is an independent publisher. We aren't backed by a large publishing house or big advertising partners. For the longevity of Social Europe we depend on our loyal readers - we depend on you. You can support us by becoming a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month.

Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

Sanctions choking

Putin’s fears are compounded by the possibility that a slow-motion palace coup may be unfolding. Since the annexation of Crimea, western sanctions have been choking Russia’s economy, fuelling resentment among the country’s political elites, who long for access to their Swiss bank accounts and Italian villas. They may now seek to oust Putin, much in the same way Nikita Khrushchev [great grandfather of the author] was ousted in 1964. And a humiliated Putin would presumably be much easier to overthrow than a popular one.

The emergence of mystics and proselytisers with promises of clarity offers further evidence that Russia’s ossified regime is beginning to destroy itself. Grigori Rasputin, a self-proclaimed holy man, helped to drive the rotting imperial monarchy into the ground. In the 1980s, when the Soviet empire was beyond reform, TV psychiatrists were all the rage.

Today, political shamans of all stripes—from communist to nationalist—are rising to prominence. They predict Putin’s imminent death, warn of a western or Chinese takeover and speculate that Navalny is a project of Russia’s security services that got out of hand. Some have even interpreted Navalny’s name—which translates as ‘push away’—as a sign that he is the one who will drive out Putinism.

Nonetheless, as the Kremlin’s response to the protests has shown, Putin and the state are one and the same. That makes toppling him a particularly difficult proposition—at least for now.

Republication forbidden—copyright Project Syndicate 2021, ‘Can Navalny take down Putin?’

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on LinkedIn
Home ・ Politics ・ Can Navalny take down Putin?

Filed Under: Politics

About Nina L Khrushcheva

Nina L Khrushcheva is professor of international affairs at the New School in New York and co-author of In Putin’s Footsteps: Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia’s Eleven Time Zones (St Martin's Press).

Partner Ads

Most Popular Posts

Thomas Piketty,capital Capital and ideology: interview with Thomas Piketty Thomas Piketty
sovereignty Brexit and the misunderstanding of sovereignty Peter Verovšek
China,cold war The first global event in the history of humankind Branko Milanovic
centre-left, Democratic Party The Biden victory and the future of the centre-left EJ Dionne Jr
Covid 19 vaccine Designing vaccines for people, not profits Mariana Mazzucato, Henry Lishi Li and Els Torreele

Most Recent Posts

supply chain,Germany,human rights Germany’s proposed supply-chain law—a glass half-empty Johanna Kusch and Claudia Saller
Myanmar,due diligence Human-rights due diligence and Myanmar Frank Hoffer
women workers,services Covid-19: a tale of two service sectors John Hurley
Uber,drivers,gig UK gig drivers recognised as workers—what next? Jill Toh
European Pillar of Social Rights,social pillar EU credibility as a people’s union rests on the social pillar Liina Carr

Other Social Europe Publications

RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?
US election 2020
Corporate taxation in a globalised era
The transformation of work
The coronavirus crisis and the welfare state

Social Europe Publishing book

With a pandemic raging, for those countries most affected by Brexit the end of the transition could not come at a worse time. Yet, might the UK's withdrawal be a blessing in disguise? With its biggest veto player gone, might the European Pillar of Social Rights take centre stage? This book brings together leading experts in European politics and policy to examine social citizenship rights across the European continent in the wake of Brexit. Will member states see an enhanced social Europe or a race to the bottom?

'This book correctly emphasises the need to place the future of social rights in Europe front and centre in the post-Brexit debate, to move on from the economistic bias that has obscured our vision of a progressive social Europe.' Michael D Higgins, president of Ireland


MORE INFO

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

Renewing labour relations in the German meat industry: an end to 'organised irresponsibility'?

Over the course of 2020, repeated outbreaks of Covid-19 in a number of large German meat-processing plants led to renewed public concern about the longstanding labour abuses in this industry. New legislation providing for enhanced inspection on health and safety, together with a ban on contract work and limitations on the use of temporary agency employees, holds out the prospect of a profound change in employment practices and labour relations in the meat industry. Changes in the law are not sufficient, on their own, to ensure decent working conditions, however. There is also a need to re-establish the previously high level of collective-bargaining coverage in the industry, underpinned by an industry-wide collective agreement extended by law to cover the entire sector.


FREE DOWNLOAD

ETUI advertisement

ETUI/ETUC (online) conference Towards a new socio-ecological contract 3-5 February 2021

The need to effectively tackle global warming puts under pressure the existing industrial relations models in Europe. A viable world of labour requires a new sustainability paradigm: economic, social and environmental.

The required paradigm shift implies large-scale economic and societal change and serious deliberation. All workers need to be actively involved and nobody should be left behind. Massive societal coalitions will have to be built for a shared vision to emerge and for a just transition, with fairly distributed costs, to be supported. But this is also an opportunity to redefine our societal goals and how they relate to the current focus on (green) growth.


REPLAY ALL SESSIONS

To access the videos, click on the chosen day then click on the ‘video’ button of your chosen session (plenary or panel). It will bring you immediately to the corresponding video. To access the available presentations, click on the chosen day then click on the ‘information’ button. Check the links to the available presentations.

Eurofound advertisement

Industrial relations: developments 2015-2019

Eurofound has monitored and analysed developments in industrial relations systems at EU level and in EU member states for over 40 years. This new flagship report provides an overview of developments in industrial relations and social dialogue in the years immediately prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Findings are placed in the context of the key developments in EU policy affecting employment, working conditions and social policy, and linked to the work done by social partners—as well as public authorities—at European and national levels.


CLICK FOR MORE INFO

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

FEPS Progressive Yearbook

Twenty-twenty has been an extraordinary year. The Covid-19 pandemic and the multidimensional crisis that it triggered have boosted existing trends and put forward new challenges. But they have also created unexpected opportunities to set a new course of action for the European Union and—hopefully—make a remarkable leap forward in European integration.

The second edition of the Progressive Yearbook, the yearly publication of the Foundation for European Progressive studies, revolves around the exceptional events of 2020 and looks at the social, economic and political impact they will have in 2021. It is a unique publication, which aims to be an instrument for the progressive family to reflect on the recent past and look ahead to our next future.


CLICK HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Find Social Europe Content

Search Social Europe

Project Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

.EU Web Awards