ailed Russian opposition figure and outspoken Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, who made global headlines when he was poisoned with a nerve agent in 2020, has died, the Russian prison service said.
ailed Russian opposition figure and outspoken Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, who made global headlines when he was poisoned with a nerve agent in 2020, has died, the Russian prison service said.
I think we should treat the question of how political prisoners are treated, and whether they’re killed in prison, independently of whether we approve of their politics. Navalny’s politics may not have been attractive, but this is still another example of Putin imprisoning and killing his critics, and that is what it is no matter where the critics are coming from politically.
I was just reading a thread about Julian Assange, another prisoner whose treatment is politically motivated and whose politics we may not like, and people there are saying they don’t care how he’s treated because he was acting as a Russian stooge. We’re in danger of losing track of the difference between our moral view of an individual and the question of human rights. Rights should apply to everyone, nice or nasty, and leaders who abuse their critics should be held responsible, no matter whether we like or dislike the politics of the leader or the critic.
I don’t recall doing anything otherwise. I made a joke about the fact that Putin probably killed him due to it being election time. I’m not dismissing his death. I explicitly said that I have no personal love lost and that I’m not glad he’s dead.
I didn’t mean to be too critical. It was really the “I certainly don’t care” part that struck me. Even if we don’t care about him personally, or care for his politics, there’s plenty to care about in how he was treated.
I was referring to the fact that he was dead which I thought was pretty clear from the context. Just because I don’t care about the fact that he is no longer living doesn’t mean that I am dismissive of the care that he was given to the point of his death.
You’ve been doing a lot of assuming so far without just simply asking what I actually meant.