This is how Mihail Khodorkovski commented on the Finnish researcher’s scathing comment about Navalny – 2024-02-27 01:10:21

Leading researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute Charly Salonius-Pasternak shrugged the other week with his unusual statement To Alexei Navalny regarding death.

– He was a Russian nationalist. It’s not worth wasting a single tear because of him, Salonius-Pasternak wrote in the message service X.

Iltalehti asked an ex-oligarch who visited Helsinki on Sunday, known as an opponent of Vladimir Putin From Mikhail Khodorkovsky view of Salonius-Pasternak’s commentary.

A Finnish researcher said that you shouldn’t cry, after all, Navalny was a Russian nationalist. How do you comment?

Khodorkovsky begins his answer by first appealing to the human side of Navalny’s death.

– In my opinion, you should always cry when any person is killed, regardless of whether he is a nationalist, a communist or a democrat. Basically, he is human.

In addition, Khodorkovsky highlights Navalny’s role as an exceptional politician.

– He was really brave as a person and acted in public as a politician very effectively, and it cannot be said that there are particularly many such people in Russia.

“Many positions”

Navalny was widely regarded as the brightest star of the Russian opposition. Navalnyi, who worked in the liberal opposition, also received criticism, especially in the early stages of his political career, for his nationalist and racist opinions.

Navalny was expelled from the liberal Jabloko party in 2007. The reason was his controversial comments on immigration and his decision to participate in the Russian far-right’s annual Russian March. Putin was also opposed in the march.

Last week, Putin’s opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison, once participated in a Russian far-right march. EPA/AOP

Navalny also called for the deportation of illegal immigrants and visa requirements for people from Central Asia. He later apologized for his comments, which were interpreted as racist, but said he stood behind his positions. These included support for Russia’s war in Georgia in 2008.

Khodorkovsky sees Navalny more broadly than this.

– Navalny had many different positions during his life. People change, people develop.

Salonius-Pasternak explained his angry comment to Iltalehti for the first time on Monday. He repeated his position that considering Navalny to be the hope of a “new and different” Russia is a “delusion”.

– Of course, an individual like Alexei Navalny can be mourned. Of course, the torture and killing of Navalny by the Russian state must be condemned, the researcher elaborated.

Russia is what it is

According to Khodorkovsky, Russians who are on the liberal side and support democracy should understand that there is more to Russia.

– I try to tell all the ultra-liberals that Russia is what it is.

According to Khodorkovsky, there are a lot of people in Russia who have left-wing, communist-leaning views, and there are also a lot of nationalists.

– There are many people with democratic views, but not enough to crush the majority.

According to Khodorkovsky, all different groups should have their political representatives, and Navalny’s supporters got one Navalny’s widow Julija Navalnaya.

– Our task is just to learn to agree on things among ourselves and – what is especially important for you here – that Russia does not pose a threat to its neighbors.