Blogs

10 July 2021

By Yury Samodurov

Source: Ekho Moskvy

When asked by Dozhd whether he thought Navalny to be a political prisoner, Yavlinsky irritably answered: ‘I don’t know.’ For this I will never forgive Grigory Yavlinsky (unless he apologizes for what was said and takes his words back), as I did not and will never forgive Vladimir Lukin for immorally voting for Putin’s modifications to the Constitution in 2020. This is a watershed and a line. For me, Yavlinsky’s answer to the question of whether Navalny is a political prisoner says a great deal more and is a great deal worse than his appeal to Navalny’s supporters not to vote for Yabloko.

Worse than that is that this is not just pre-election politics, but ‘politics on the bones’ of a prisoner who Putin’s regime tried to and aspire to kill. Henceforth, Yavlinsky, for me, has crossed the line of an immoral person, despite his cleverness and the attractiveness of the Yabloko programs he developed. Unfortunately, not one of the Yabloko candidates disavowed what was said by Yavlinsky – not Vishnevsky, not Schlosberg, not Mitrokhin, and not anyone else. Let God be their judge.

I had an article on Ekho in June called ‘My attitude toward the elections to Putin’s State Duma,’ and, in July, one called ‘I must speak about this again.’ There I explained why I will not vote for Yabloko (and in general, not for anyone) in the forthcoming State Duma elections, and this is in no way connected with the attitude of Yavlinsky and Yabloko toward Navalny. But to say that my attitude toward Grigory Yavlinski in moral terms has fundamentally changed in connection with his answer to the question of whether Navalny is a political prisoner, is, in my opinion, more correct than to dissemble about it.

For the non-political, honest person, the answer to this question is simple – ‘Yes, I think, I know, that Memorial and Amnesty recognized Navalny as a political prisoner, and I have no reason not to trust them.’ Another answer says a great deal.

Translated by Alyssa Rider