Can Navajo bring Putin down from power?

There are, of course, 2 moments during the past century when a “orte” event changed the political regime in Russia. In 1917 the Bolshevik Revolution brought down the country's monarchy. And in 1991, a coup failed by Marxist-Leninist fanatics against Reformer Mikhail Gorbachev accelerated the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Is another change of regime warning of the wave of protests involving Russia in recent weeks? Not likely. Of course, unlike the protests that shocked Russia in 2011-2012 in response to Vladimir Putin's third term as president, today's protest movement leads a charismatic and charming leader.

Alexei Navajo has been a ruthless anti-corruption activist for years. When he was arrested last month, he had just returned from Germany, where he remained for several months to recover from poisoning with the Kremlin's favorite nervous agent, Novicoc, to continue facing Putin's regime.

But unlike the twilight of Czars and Soviets, Putin's regime is neither slow nor wavering. Putin has spent the past decade consolidating a police state, and he is prepared to use any means available to preserve his power. The leader who invaded Ukraine and illegally annexed Crime in 2014, to strengthen his popularity among the Russians, and who changed the Constitution last year so that he could stay president until death, would not be forced to give up power from a weekend protest movement.

Yet, there is something excessive, even unreasonable, to the oppression Putin is putting on his fellow workers and supporters. So far, police have arrested thousands of people (including journalists), often using brutal tactics. Meanwhile, the government has blocked social media platforms, claiming they are fuelling unrest.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin-controlled television networks broadcast endless stories about Putin, while any attempts are being made to discredit the protest movement. By closing the downtown of Moscow, including the public transportation leading to it, the government has upset not a few citizens, and it has done so in such a way that it looks like a Navajo guilt.

Narrattiva is that the government wants the peaceful “residents of the town” to be able to do their weekend shopping, but there are protesters “violating law”, but also “terrorists”, who insist on ruining the life of“of the Moskovists.

According to Kremlin logic, when leaders, journalists and foreign diplomats speak in support of the opposition, they are simply testifying that the Navajo is a puppet of a global plot to destabilise Russia.

To make this thesis credible, the Russian Foreign Ministry expelled three European diplomats in recent days on the charge of participating in the Navajo gatherings, and that was when the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, was visiting Moscow.

The Kremlin is treating Navalny himself as an enemy of the state. The farce court hearings against him since their return from Germany remember Stalin's trials in the 1930s, with a substantial change: Navalny's not surrendering to the dictator, he's continuing to confess to his”

During the hearings held so far, Navalny has criticised state lawlessness and has denounced his sentence as illegal by nearly three years in prison. Moreover, Navajo recently published a video that became viral on the grid.

There he accused Putin of using funds obtained through corruption to build a palace that costs over $1 billion on the Black Sea. And while the Russians know that their leaders are corrupt, Navajo has repeatedly discovered the staggering wealth generated by corruption.

Navajo attacks directly undermine Vladimir Putin's position. So he must be eliminated. Putin's fear is also enhanced by the possibility of a coup within the Kremlin.

Since the Crimea annexation, Western sanctions have seriously damaged the Russian economy, prompting discontent among the country's political elites, who want access to their Swiss bank accounts and Italian villas they own.

Now they may seek to expel Putin from power, just as Nikita Khushchev fell in 1964. And apparently a humiliated Putin would be much more

Easy to overthrow than a popular Putin. The Mystique show provides further evidence that the Russian regime has begun to destroy itself.

Grigor Rasputin, a self - proclaimed holy man, helped overthrow the imperial monarchy. In the 1980s, when the Soviet Empire was beyond reform, TV psychiatrists were furious. Today, the political shamans of all currents- from Communists to the nationalists are gaining considerable weight in public opinion.

They predict Putin's imminent death, warn a Western or Chinese invasion, and speculate that the Navajo is a Russian secret service project that is now out of control.

Some have even interpreted the name Navajo translated “As a sign that he is able to bring down Putinism. However, as the Kremlin's reaction to the protests has shown, Putin and the state are the same. And that makes his fall an especially difficult scenario, at least for now.

Note: Nina L. Khrushcheva, is a professor of international affairs at the “The New School”, and coauthor of Putin's book “: Search for the soul of an empire”.

From Nina L. Khrushcheva “Project Syndicate”