Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is dead, the prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region where he had been serving his sentence said on Friday.
It did draw extra attention, lots of extra attention actually. Navalny’s problems in the Russian prison system made the news frequently, regularly reminding everyone what a fucked up state Russia is. Immolating himself on the red square would have been far less effective since that’s been done a few times already (there’s been a few people who have immolated themselves there already). So as a suicide with a message/martyr for a cause, it was in my perception fairly effective at getting a message across I think. Point in case: we’re talking about it again even now …
It did draw extra attention, lots of extra attention actually. Navalny’s problems in the Russian prison system made the news frequently, regularly reminding everyone what a fucked up state Russia is. Immolating himself on the red square would have been far less effective since that’s been done a few times already (there’s been a few people who have immolated themselves there already). So as a suicide with a message/martyr for a cause, it was in my perception fairly effective at getting a message across I think. Point in case: we’re talking about it again even now …
As much attention as he could have drawn if he had stayed outside Russia? I doubt it.