On February 16th 2024, Alexei Navalny died in Russian prison. Navalny was considered 1 of the most prominent leaders of the Russian opposition. He initially gained popularity through his extended work exposing Russian state corruption. Later on, his charismatic personality, protest activism and savvy usage of the net elevated him to be 1 of the most celebrated figures of the Russian democratic movement, both in Russia and in the West. After the Kremlin’s failed poisoning effort in 2020, Navalny returned to Russia from Germany, where he was subsequently arrested and imprisoned. It is widely believed that the mediocre conditions of the prison and the well-documented, appalling treatment of Navalny were contributing factors towards his death. Of course, this suggests that it was the Russian state that yet killed him.
Not long after Navalny’s death, his memoirs were released under the name The Patriot. In his book, Navalny wrote about his youth; his activism; his fight against Russian dictatorship; his time in prison; and yet his patriotism for Russia. In the West, Navalny’s image remains that of a brave hero, committed to democratic values and the thought of a free Russia. What is, however, missing from this forming legacy of Navalny is his imperialist rhetoric, to which he remained loyal right up until his death.
Navalny’s imperialist tendencies firstly came to popular announcement erstwhile Russia invaded Georgia in 2008. In his blog, Navalny compared Georgian people to rodents and called for the bombardment of Sakartvelo. His most celebrated abroad policy statement, however, was the “sandwich quote”. In 2014, he was asked in an interview if he would return Crimea, which was just illegally annexed by Russia. He replied asking if Crimea is simply a “sandwich or something that you can take and give back?” These brazen comments show that Navalny did not focus much on Russia’s imperial conquests. Indeed, Patalakh’s article on Navalny published in 2018 notes that Navalny paid only marginal attention to Russia’s abroad policy. Instead, he saw Russia’s home issues, specified as corruption and poverty, as a priority.
A historical problem
There is besides a wider issue – postcolonial studies (the academic field dedicated to the survey and knowing of the colonial past and present) barely exists in Russia. In fact, any major postcolonial thinkers, specified as Edward Said or Gayatri Spivak, are considered to be extremist left figures. As a result, they are frowned upon in Russia as they are in conflict with the country’s conventional conservative values. However, the real reason for this omission is different. Russia has not only failed to admit its colonial crimes but continues to actively commit them. As opposed to the European colonial powers which accepted that colonial expansion was inhumane and began to admit their historical wrongs, Russia continues to deny that it committed any imperial aggression. Whilst the Baltic states supply many evidence-based accounts that they were occupied by the russian Union in 1940, Russia claims no specified business always took place. Whilst Russian troops entered the territory of Ukraine on February 24th 2022 in a blatant act of war, Russia claims it was only defending the people of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Both of these areas were destabilized by an aggressive and unlawful Russian intervention in the first place. Therefore, postcolonial studies straight contradicts the Russian abroad policy of imperialism in its “near abroad”. As a substance of fact, on December 29th 2024, Putin approved Russia’s fresh “Strategy for Countering Extremism”. This has led to organizations that advance the thought of Russia’s possible decolonization as extremist.
It is possibly not amazing that specified denial was besides persistent in Navalny’s political rhetoric. In his Washington Post opinion article from 2022, he attributed imperialist tendencies to the Kremlin only. However, he failed to explain why the war continues to have popular support. On his Twitter (now X) post of April 14th 2022, Navalny said that opinion polls are inaccurate and especially so in authoritarian states. However, a good survey from Kizilova and Norris from 2022 demonstrated that cultural and historical preconditions would have the top influence on Russian society’s opinions towards the invasion. Whilst opinions can be somewhat swayed by threats and force, the scales could not shift to nearly 80 per cent approval without any genuine support from the public. On February 20th 2023, on X, Navalny besides answered the question if “all Russians are inherently imperialistic?” with a categorical no. He proceeded to compare Russia and Belarus, which in itself was bizarre considering Belarus was never an empire to begin with and, on the contrary, was at the receiving end of Russian imperialism herself. From Navalny’s somewhat peculiar statements related to Russian imperialism (as well as the deficiency of them), it is clear he did not pay much importance to the imperialist ideology behind Russia’s continued wars of aggression.
This persistent denial makes Navalny complicit in Russian imperialist narratives. It is not possible to address the crimes of Russian imperialism if they are actively denied. Whilst Navalny spoke out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and has even retracted his statements about Georgians and Crimea, he failed to address the persistent imperialist ideology that poisons Russian society. Navalny’s attribution of Russian imperialism to the Kremlin only creates a false communicative that the wars in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria and Ukraine were solely waged by Putin. However, Russia waged imperialist wars for centuries before Putin and his dictatorship rose to power. They are not the origin of Russian imperialism. Russia was the third-largest empire and the most durable of all time. While the European colonial societies started to admit their colonial crimes, nothing of the kind has happened in Russia. Therefore, the imperialist consciousness continues to live in Russian society unchallenged. The denial of it allows Russian imperialism to continue, shifting all the blame onto the Kremlin and maintaining the Russian people’s imperial innocence.
A deadly blame game
Navalny besides displays imperialist beliefs through the ideas of Russian victimhood. As Russia conquered further lands, the conquered nations in the west specified as Ukraine, Belarus or the Baltic states were ruled primarily by assimilation. This is centred on the thought that the colonizer and the colonized are “one people”, with Russia being the dominant, inherently superior nation. This provided the ideology and the justification for Russia to conquer its neighbours. To further advance this mode of domination, a number of repressive Russification policies followed to that effect. These included the banning of any non-Russian languages and alphabets; deportation based on cultural grounds; the importation of Russian nationals; and the erasure of national identity and culture. Over centuries of Russification and continuous “one nation” propaganda, this communicative began to entrench itself in Russian society. In conjunction with the persistent denial of their own imperialist sentiment mentioned earlier, Russians began to besides equate their victimhood to the countries occupied by Russia. Russians would say that they were besides the victims of serfdom, of the Russian civilian war, of Stalin’s repressions, and today, of Putin’s authoritarian grip.
Navalny’s statements on Twitter besides repeatedly item that the suffering of Ukrainians is on par with the suffering of the Russians. In his message on mobilization issued on September 23rd 2023, he stated that “I argue the fact hundreds of thousands of our people are being sent to kill another people, innocent people like them [Ukrainians].” Despite Russia invading Ukraine and committing horrifying war crimes against civilians, Navalny besides continued to separate the Russian nation from the Russian government. In another message issued on September 21st 2023, Navalny said that “Putin is tormenting the neighbouring country, killing people there, and now he is throwing a immense number of Russian citizens into the meat grinder that is this war, people who are expected to just live usually and take care of their families.” Navalny did not grow on the fact that it was Russian people who committed the summary killings, rape and torture on the Ukrainian civilian population. He besides did not discuss the Russian army’s complicity in the Bucha massacre in 2022. Instead, Navalny perceived Ukrainians and Russians as 1 people at the receiving end of Putin’s wrath. This allowed him to proclaim Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an unjust war for Ukrainians as well as Russians. In his tweet of February 22nd 2022, Navalny said that Putin “will not let Ukraine to develop, he will drag it into the swamp, but Russia will pay the same price”.
The problem of equating Russian and Ukrainian victimhood is that it erases the imperialist nature of Russia’s domination in the occupied regions. Whilst it is actual that the Russian people’s freedom and right to free speech is suppressed, their very existence is not threatened. Imperialism, by proclaiming inherent superiority, aims to completely erase the subjugated nations by way of killing local populations, erasing culture and spreading panic – the policies precisely enacted by Russia presently in its invasion of Ukraine. Putin proclaimed that Ukraine is not a real country and that Ukrainians and Russians are the same people. In this way he denies Ukrainians the right to exist. Russian society does not fall victim to imperialism, but to authoritarianism. The difference matters greatly. Authoritarianism denies you freedom but imperialism denies you existence. Authoritarianism allows you to live in certain conditions but for imperialism, your very surviving is not permitted. By equating these victimhoods, Russian imperialism is effectively erased.
Navalny was a patriot of the empire. By failing to address Russian imperialism and continuing to claim equal victimhood to Ukraine, he promoted Russian imperialist discourse. It is somewhat peculiar that he focused on and advocated for ending poverty, alcoholism and corruption. This is due to the fact that it is precisely the continued Russian imperial hysteria that contributes to the deepening of these interior problems by overshadowing them. It could be that Navalny wanted Russia to stay the largest colonial power and besides to be a prosperous democratic nation but this is an oxymoron. In order for Russia to start considering a democratic path, it must challenge its current national identity for its imperialist undertones; start having conversations about the country’s imperial legacy; and quit its occupied colonies. A individual to undertake this would be a patriot of Russia.
Gabriele Kaminskaite is simply a Masters postgraduate in global Relations from the University of Manchester and an early career researcher. She utilises postcolonial explanation to deepen the knowing of Russian imperialism in variety of its forms and manifestations. Her thesis argues that the contemporary Russian opposition’s rhetoric is frequently tainted with imperialist discourse, with a focus on Alexei Navalny. Gabriele besides supports the local Ukrainian community in Manchester, UK in raising awareness about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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