Russian Propaganda and DARVO
So, this piece dropped today. We have heard rumors, now denials, on MSNBC and other media. There was a planned exchange with Russia to remove Navalny. What does this tell us about Alexi Navalny's perceived threat to the Russian state?
So, this piece today exemplifies the threat that Navalny still poses to the state. Here is the piece because it exemplifies DARVO very well. This is deny, attack reverse victim and offender:
Etc. “Assistant to the American President for National Security Jake Sullivan said that during negotiations on the exchange of prisoners, the Russian side did not mention opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he agreed to the exchange of the politician a few days before the news of his death in the colony.
“For months and years, we have spoken with Russian officials about American prisoners being unjustly detained in Russia. In none of these conversations did we hear Russian officials mention Navalny as part of a prisoner swap, so if that’s what they were interested in, then they came to it too late, since he is no longer alive, because we didn’t hear this from them before,” Mr. Sullivan responded to a request to comment on the words of the President of the Russian Federation (quote from Forbes).
The day before, Vladimir Putin said that “some colleagues” a few days before the death of Alexei Navalny put forward the idea of exchanging him for “certain people who are in prison in Western countries.” “The person who spoke to me had not yet finished his sentence, but I said: ‘I agree,’” the president noted. Later, his press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the head of state did not say that negotiations on the exchange of Alexei Navalny were underway. He meant that such an idea was put forward, the press secretary emphasized.
At the end of February, the Financial Times newspaper wrote about the exchange of Russian Vadim Krasikov for Alexei Navalny and two US citizens: Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan. Dmitry Peskov said that he knew nothing about such agreements.” (Text source Kommersant)
The funeral was extremely well attended. Perhaps even surprising Russians a tad. And by Russians, I mean the state. Navalny is still toxic for the Kremlin.
So now they are turning around and blaming the United States for his death. They are reversing who is responsible. I mean, if we had played ball, he would be alive. So it is on the Americans.
Sullivan denied that there was even a hint that an exchange would work for our audiences, which is good. He is not falling into the trap. But this is directed inside the Federation and those liberals that may want to work with the enemy. From the Kremlin's point of view, we never stopped being the enemy.
Navalny was part of a peaceful resistance. Now they are having an different problem. So, is this to try to prevent Russians from joining partisans? Which brings me back to a local Belgorod channel and how the Government is thinking about this:
Vyacheslav Gladkov answered the question of why the region does not sound an alarm at night:
“If we turn on the siren at night, and hundreds of thousands of people are sleeping, and we wake them up, people may not be able to cope with this stressful situation.”
The governor noted that recently there have been no night shellings, and if they happen, then SMS notifications and the Ministry of Emergency Situations application are sufficient.
“We don’t see yet that this is wrong. We cannot and will not allow things to worsen and make the residents a complete nightmare. Let’s look for compromises. Children are already in tension,” Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Gladkov is worried about waking people up. That’s the whole point of civil defense and shelters. In war, you should be willing to have both to protect lives. But he is concerned citizens under his responsibility will get enough sleep.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Rumination's to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.