The Navalny Protests
By: Andre Wang and Harishkumar Selvakumar
For almost 18 years, fraudulent elections have been a problem at the forefront of the minds of Russian citizens. Police brutality has been an even greater and longer problem. For many many years, the Russian citizens have held peaceful protests against elections and votes thought to be biased and unfair, going from constitutional votes all the way to presidential elections. The current protests, however, are different. Sparked by the Poisoning of Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader who was excluded from elections previously in the year, these protests have gained the ears of the entire world. As Putin’s biggest critic, Navalny has been facing backlash and punishments for his efforts against fraudulent elections with the infamous president. Very much like previous free speech and election fraud protests, these current ones are not being received well by the Russian government or police force, but now Navalny and the citizens of Russia have gained the attention of the world, hoping for a reformed voting process and more democratic freedoms.
How do Russian protests mirror BLM protests and highlight police brutality and abuse of power?
When do you think illegal protesting and general illegal actions are justified?
I believe that illegal protesting and general illegal actions should not be justified unless not doing the illegal acts violates a person's basic rights or put the person's life in danger. However, most of the time, the public justify them while claiming that it was plainly payback or revenge. I don't believe in violence solving violence but I also can't argue that their way is ineffective. However, I feel like in an authoritarian regime like one that is Russia, protests are ineffective unless it can encourage other nations to help them out. There is a lot the Russia media can do to negatively paint the pictures of the protestors. Moreover, the government can do a lot of things to stop the protests like the ways Mr. Silton discussed. Committing illegal acts in these protests will just give the government controlled media even more opportunities to manipulate the perspective of those who barely understand what's going on. Therefore, I don't think it's a justified or reasonable claim to say that illegal protesting is just so that the government can see their determination. Governments will likely not be convinced.
ReplyDeleteThe Russian protests mirror BLM because they too are against police and the justice system. Poisoning Navalny was a made him into a martyr of some sort, just like George Floyd and Brianna Taylor were martyrs. They tried to kill Navalny because he was resisting the regime by promoting anti-authoritarian ideas, and George Floyd was killed for breaking a law (using a counterfeit bill at a store). Both highlight the authorities' overreaction to law breakers.
ReplyDeleteIt also has to deal with an abuse of power because the bigger man is overreacting to the smaller man (regular people). The cops could have just arrested George Floyd, rather than overreacting. Same with the Russian government, but because they're a regime, they feel like they have to punish their opposition.
I think illegal protesting and actions are justified when fighting for basic rights, or things that could but people in danger. I don't think illegal protesting is justified when it is over little things like a store going out of business etc. (I just made that up). But, I think protesting against things such as police brutality, systematic racism, or LGBTQ+ rights should be justified because the people stand for real issues that need to be heard and talked about.
ReplyDeleteI think that illegal protesting is justified when people are fighting for basic human rights for people and when the government is not willing to change anything to help. I think we see many examples of this specifically in the US. BLM I feel is a good example of one of these protests. Fighting for LGBTQ+, BLM, Women's Rights, and many other examples are issues that need to be talked about more.
ReplyDeleteI think illegal protests are justified when they are fighting for human rights that their government for whatever reason restricts or doesn't allow. I think that these Russian protests reflect the BLM movement in the response that was police brutality as well as the way that both are fighting for change in their respective governments.
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