Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, died in jail on February 16th. According to the official explanation of the Russian authorities, Navalny died after a fall at the "Polar Wolf" IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, in Russia's Arctic north, where he was being held. His body at the time of writing this post hasn't been returned yet to his family, intensifying suspicions surrounding his death (his allies also suspected for months that they were killing him, using slow-acting poison administered through food).
The anti-corruption activist, who gained significant opposition against Vladimir Putin, had previously been poisoned with Soviet-era novichok in Russia in 2020. He was subsequently airlifted to Germany for medical treatment and returned to Russia in 2021, where he faced conviction on charges of fraud and extremism, and was handed a 30-year prison sentence.
Last year at the beginning of December, Navalny had suddenly disappeared from the prison where he was held in the Vladimir region, but reappeared in the Polar Wolf "penal colony" at the end of the same month. This sudden relocation was associated with President Putin's announcement of his intention to seek re-election in Russia's 2024 presidential race.
Navalny consistently asserted that the sentence on charges of extremism and fraud was politically motivated, a form of retribution for leading the anti-Kremlin opposition.
His death, which spurred protests globally, led to tributes in Russia, with individuals leaving messages and flowers at the Wall of Grief, a monument dedicated to victims of political persecution during Stalin's era. However, these acts of homage resulted in numerous arrests, indicating a crackdown on dissent (the rights group OVD-Info stated that at least 340 people were detained at events across 30 cities since Navalny's death).
Despite Navalny's demise being viewed by many as the end of opposition against Putin, his message to not give up, particularly highlighted in the Oscar-winning documentary "Navalny," by Canadian filmmaker Daniel Roherc, continues to resonate across social media. In the documentary Navalny states: "If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong. We need to utilize that power to not give up, to remember we are a huge power that is being oppressed by these bad dudes. We don't realize how strong we actually are. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good people to do nothing. So, don't be inactive."
Navalny's use of irony in responding to Putin's provocations, showcased his resilience against adversity. In January this year, speaking from the Arctic penal colony, Navalny asked the representative of the prison authorities during a video conference court appearance, if they had had a party. "You probably had a naked party like Ivleeva?" Navalny enquired smiling and referring to the almost naked party, a controversial event held in December with influencers such as Anastasia Ivleeva, musicians and celebrities, that sparked outrage among conservative Russian politicians and sent the participants shooting a frenzy of "mea culpa" style post-party videos in fear of retaliation. A few weeks ago, he posted through his allies on X, formerly Twitter, a message about waking every day at 5 o'clock in the morning, at the command "Get up!" followed "by the Russian national anthem and then immediately afterwards, the country's second most important song is played - 'I am Russian' by Shaman." A staple on Russian state TV, the singer Shaman is known in Russia for his ultra-nationalist songs. The irony here stood in the fact that state propaganda previously emphasized his participation in annual marches alongside Russian nationalists. Now, years later, he found himself compelled to listen to an ultra-nationalist pop song for "educational" purposes during his morning prison exercises.
Navalny's passing has raised concerns about the further persecution of dissenters in Russia. So, now that Navalny has gone, will Putin focus on another of his obsessions, the LGBTQ+ community?
Putin's recent efforts to promote "traditional values" have indeed targeted marginalized communities, including the LGBTQ+ population. His anti-gay rhetoric is well-known and in November last year Putin referred to trans people as "transformers".
In 2023, Putin signed legislation prohibiting "LGBT propaganda" among adults, criminalizing any action deemed to promote what Russia terms "non-traditional sexual relations" (in film, online, advertising, or public settings). Putin's fixation on a macho persona is evident, perpetuated by souvenir T-shirts portraying him in various roles - from hunter to judo athlete - reminiscent of the '70s action figure Big Jim (in Anna Politkovskaya's book "Putin's Russia" (2004), the author, who was shot dead on Putin's birthday in October 2006, compared him to Nikolay Gogol's character Akaky Akakievich, more concerned with his image than with his soul...).
In November last year the justice ministry petitioned to brand the "international LGBT movement" as extremist, without clarifying what the term meant (note that this is a broad definition employed by Russian authorities and does not refer to a registered entity in Russia). Subsequently, Russia's supreme court declared the "international LGBT public movement" extremist in a groundbreaking ruling, alarming representatives of gay and transgender communities. This ruling effectively criminalizes LGBTQ+ activism, potentially resulting in lengthy prison sentences for individuals associated with the so-called "international LGBT public movement." (The Kremlin has used the extremist label to target human rights groups, independent media, and political dissenters, including Navalny, as seen earlier on). These developments led to raids on LGBTQ+-friendly venues in the Russian capital as early as December.
As things stand it is challenging to identify a new charismatic figure or rebuild a resistance movement against Putin within Russia, yet Navalny warned not to give up. So, the question persists: where will the impetus for a fresh fight against Putin come from? Will fashion be employed at some point or could it be used for more subtle ways to protest or to help protests in Russia?
As seen in previous posts, it is not impossible to talk about politics on the runways and through fashion accents, but maybe a protest against Putin could be done in more subtle ways, also by other state representatives and politicians.
When she went to meet Putin, for example, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, famous for her collection of pins, decided to wear three "Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil" monkeys carved out of tagua nuts and sitting on glass cabochons. Albright had asked in that occasion for international monitors to be allowed into Chechnya, where brutal fighting was taking place, to protect civilians, but Putin blocked the request as he denied any human rights violations were taking place, hence the "no evil" pins.
More recently, Rick Owens sent on his A/W 24 menswear runway the protagonist of the documentary "Queendom" (directed by Agniia Galdanova), Russian radical trans artist, Gena Marvin, currently living as an expat in Paris.
While Navalny often appeared standing defiant in videos from prison, Gena has learnt to subvert the establishment by walking around the streets of Moscow in drag, often wearing just body paint, platform boots and barbed wire (her encounter with a soldier is hilarious with Gena towering upon him like an alien that has just landed while he tells her, "Your overtly provocative and destructive appearance can lead to incidents."). While Gena acting as a model on Owens' runway wasn't per se an act of protest or a provocation, her presence silently invited people to check her work and the risks she went through to assert her identity.
So, yes, change in a country run by a dangerous dictator is elusive and difficult, but we (and with "we" I mean especially those of us living relatively safe existences in democratic nations) must cease of passively dreaming of a brighter future and actively strive to realize it, even through subtle and symbolic acts, to create a better world where peace, justice, and equality prevail for all. A world where happiness reigns, and perpetual fear and hate are unknown. An existence devoid of oppressors like Putin, absent not just from governments and positions of authority and power, but from T-shirts as well.
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