Why do you care about Navalny? He is a grifter and a crook, not an opposition leader. He is about as relevant to Russian politics as Tommy Robinson is to UK politics. If you really cared about opposition voices being heard then there are problems closer to home. The UK is currently home to the world's most prominent political prisoner. He is allowed no statements from his Cat A prison, unlike Navalny, nor is he charged with or guilty of anything approaching a crime in this country. The noise about Navalny is more to cover our own international shame over our treatment of Assange.
Anyone in the UK complaining about Navalny is a brainwashed fool. Assange is in jail for telling too much truth, Navalny is in jail because he is a convicted fraudster.
Fair point and well put, but on the other hand, hasn't the ECHR ruled twice now (in 2014 and 2019) against the Russian Federation in actions brought by Navalny to that court? The 2014 ruling was that Navalny did not receive a fair trial in the fraud case. The 2019 ruling was that Navalny's civil and political rights have been breached by the Russian Federation.
I think it is true that Russia lacks the judicial safeguards and checks and balances that countries such as Britain have. I would have no hesitation in visiting Russia again and I would consider myself safe there, but I'm not sure I would be confident about engaging in any sort of political protest or criticism of government in that country. Not that I would do so in somebody else's country anyway, but the point in principle is that Russia - for various reasons, partly to do with its own history - does not have the same depth of commitment to political liberty that exists in the West and the Western mind.
I take on board your point about Assange's plight and the unfavourable comparison, but that is a different case. I would not extradite Julian Assange, but at the same time, I'm not sure his cause is as sympathetic as it is spun out by his supporters. I have total sympathy for his situation and I think he should be released forthwith, but he acted recklessly and stupidly in some of his activities for Wikileaks.
Personally, I think what happens in Russia in the matter of their choice of leader and system of government is no business of Britain and I am perplexed by the fuss and think most of the criticisms of Putin are wrong or unfair or misdirected, or even when valid, seem hypocritical, and in virtually all cases inevitably demonstrate ignorance about Russia - a sovereign foreign country with its own deep and rich history and way of doing things that is in some ways quite alien to the Western mind.
