More than ten thousand people gathered, on Friday, March 1, around an Orthodox church and the Borissov cemetery, both places far from the center of Moscow, to say goodbye and honor Alexei Navalny, murdered by Putin in a prison in the Arctic Circle.
The crowd defied all the dangers faced by the regime's relentless repression.
The tribute became a demonstration and slogans of “No to war”, “Murderer Putin” or “Putin to The Hague” were heard, despite the years in prison that these cries entail.
Navalny was, with his indomitable spirit, exactly the reverse of the autocrat who issued his death sentence.
These funerals occurred two years after Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, where all kinds of crimes were committed.
The war and the internal repression, which preceded it, are two sides of the same coin.
Putin has been in charge of restoring, under the cover of elections without opponents, a regime that has, in this aspect, notable similarities with the old system of the USSR.
In Latin America we have known for decades the cynicism of the “free” Cuban elections and, lately, those carried out by Maduro in Venezuela.
However, these two cases serve to exemplify that, despite the collapse of the Soviet system, the former KGB not only managed to fill the power vacuum of the debacle, with Putin at the helm, but also partly preserve the complex networks built through over decades.
The Russian intelligence apparatus (today the FSB) never lost control over the Cuban services, who in turn have a large part of control of the government of their country and the Venezuelan State.
When the invasion of Ukraine took place, from these same pages I concluded the article dedicated to the subject with a phrase that today I would have preferred not to be true: Putin's main ally is called Donald Trump.
Indeed, if Trump wins the second US presidency, this alliance will immediately affect the future of NATO.
The current blocking of funds to Ukraine, by the Republicans, is just a preannouncement of what could come.
The intervention of Russian trolls in the North American elections, which led to Trump's victory, was widely proven.
What could not be proven, according to the special prosecutor who investigated the matter, was Trump's personal connivance in this plot.
It is no coincidence that, around the same time, the main architect of this strategy disappeared from the government: Steve Bannon, the true power in the shadows at the beginning of the Trump presidency.
We can remember the moment when President Trump, when he had to choose what his “friend” Putin and the FBI told him, did not hesitate to express his support for the autocrat who has him within his networks.
How is it possible that an authoritarian regime, which is sliding increasingly towards a new form of totalitarianism, through Trump, has built such an alliance with the majority sector of the Republican Party and, therefore, with an important part of society? North American?
Navalny's murder and Trump's refusal to associate his death with Putin revived old stories in the North American media.
The alleged reasons for the ascendancy that Putin had and has over Trump seem enigmatic.
They are less so if he puts the magnifying glass on the strange management of the supposed tycoon's fortune.
One of the explanations provided by a news channel was, precisely, the route of the money that the former Soviet regime injected into Trump, to free him from bankruptcy, in the distant 1980s, through a German bank and from other, much less known channels, when he was married to the Czech Ivana, the alleged facilitator of these links.
Already at this time, Trump spoke out more than once about the negative role of NATO
Several of the main leaders of the populist and global far-right (yes, the oxymoron prevails) were present at the last Conservative Action Conference in Washington, where Trump took the opportunity to transform it into a central event of his candidacy.
It should be noted that some of these leaders, in addition to Trump, have fluid ties with Putin.
We must also point out the enormous ability of the Russian regime to influence, through its army of trolls, any event where democracies could crack (Brexit, Catalonia, “yellow vests”, etc.).
Steve Bannon, creator of the concept of chaos and disorder as a global strategy, complements perfectly with Putin and his task as destroyer of worlds.
His wars in Georgia, Chechnya, Syria and Ukraine have revealed his scorched earth tactics and spread of terror.
In this context, Navalny's main legacy to Russian society seems to be “do not be afraid,” even if opposing it can cost your life.
As is known, sometimes the dead weigh more than the living.
In politics, it is important to never forget the value of the martyrs and their turning point.
Miguel Espejo is an essayist and writer.