Candidate for mayorship Alexei Navalny is already a marked man. As he scurries from one speech to another, the damoclean sword has already been lowered on his head.
Alexei Navalny has already been condemned to 3 years of forced labor for what he says are trumped up charges of emblezzement, a favorite charge of the Russian power elite against anyone they wish to silence. However, by a strange turn of fate, and much more likely to salvage a tattered personal image, Putin has allowed him to return to the campaign after the court freed him on his own recognizance.
Campaigning against corruption will land in you jail, if not in the morgue, in Russia. Much bigger men than Navalny have gone that way for challenging Putin's reign. But Navalny seems to have what a lot of other rebels and demonstrators didn't: a great deal of followers and an even greater deal of guts.
After his release, elections for the Moscow mayorship, one of the most powerful and coveted position in the Russian power structure, got under way without a glitch, but the result defied the pollster's previous predictions.
In fact, Putin's favorite won those elections, sending everyone the message that ,notwithstanding the will of the people or the rise of a new viable candidate, little can stop the tentacled reach of the Putin administration.
Navalny of course immediately called for a recount claiming that the results were deliberately falsified. There are few people who still believe that elections in Russia are fair.
One of the reasons Navalny was released, without a doubt, was to quell the firestorms his silencing would have brought at a time when Putin has to tend to much greater affairs. But his loss, and the obvious steering from afar of the crucial Moscow elections, has reiterated Navalny's point. His release, in the end, may backfire, as people will probably take up Navalny's cause of ballot recount and investigation of the election. His imprisonment too, might bring protests.
Sobyanin's vote count was just above the 50% needed to avoid a recount. That alone, in Navalny's words, is an indication that the elections were steered. The Kremlin of course has already denied any wrongdoing.
It remains to be seen then, if the people of Moscow will take to the streets to defend their champion. Even if they do, the fate of Navalny is sealed. There is little evidence that he will avoid incarceration, and that alone could raise more protests. In any case, once the dust settles in Moscow, if it does, the Kremlin will surely make short work of Navalny's moment of glory.
Partial Source : France 24/ 9.9.13
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