A HERO FOR OUR TIME

Alexei Navalny, one of the heroes of our time, died in a prison camp of Vladimir Putin, one of the villains of our time. Many thousands of words have been written in the West about the death of Alexei Navalny. But amongst the outpouring of outrage from the West, little has been mentioned about this remarkable man’s Christian motivation.

Alexei Navalny

Despite having been imprisoned on fictitious charges, released and then poisoned with Novichok nerve agent requiring treatment in the West, Navalny had returned to Russia. The 47-year-old anti-corruption activist and politician who had organised anti-government protests and had millions of YouTube followers suddenly fell unconscious after a walk in the brutal ‘Polar Wolf’ Arctic Circle penal colony. He died on February 16. 

Putin appears to have achieved his aim, decapitating the opposition movement in Russia. Speaking out against Putin is dangerous. Dissident leaders in Russia risk being murdered or assaulted. No perpetrators are ever apprehended. In 2015 dissident politician Boris Nemtsov was shot dead as he strolled along the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge within sight of the Kremlin. Nemtsov was an Orthodox Christian, and his murder justifiably sparked fear amongst Russia’s Christians. 

There are Christians in the West who view Putin’s resistance to Western decadence as something to be admired, and wish for a similarly strong Christian leader. His emphasis on the Russian Orthodox Church as the core of Russian identity causes some in the West to view him as a defender of Christianity. This is bolstered by the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church gives him unwavering support.

What these Western Christian apologists for Putin gloss over is that he and the Russian Orthodox Church are steadfastly opposed to religious liberty for non-Orthodox Christians, especially evangelicals. Many of the dissidents Putin persecutes are Christians. Although you won’t hear it on Western mainstream media, at his trial Navalny openly spoke of his own Christian faith. As far as he was concerned, he was following the Bible which contains the instructions for life.

‘But now I am a believer, and that helps me a lot in my activities, because everything becomes much, much easier. I think about things less. There are fewer dilemmas in my life, because there is a book in which, in general, it is more or less clearly written what action to take in every situation. It’s not always easy to follow this book, of course, but I am actually trying. And so, as I said, it’s easier for me, probably, than for many others, to engage in politics . . . Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. I’ve always thought that this particular commandment is more or less an instruction to activity. And so, while certainly not really enjoying the place where I am, I have no regrets about coming back, or about what I’m doing. It’s fine, because I did the right thing. On the contrary, I feel a real kind of satisfaction. Because at some difficult moment I did as required by the instructions, and did not betray the commandment.’

Navalny is not the only Christian dissident to face persecution. In December 2019, student activist and blogger Yegor Zhukov, dubbed ‘Moscow’s New Face of Dissent’, was tried for ‘inciting extremism’ after participating in political protests. On December 4, Zhukov delivered a powerful speech, rebutting the Putin regime’s claim that they were the ‘last defender’ of ‘the institution of the family’. Zhukov pointed out the dreadful state of the Russian family: the widespread alcoholism, suicide and despair. All exacerbated by a deliberate state policy of dehumanising the people making them easier to subjugate. 

Yegor Zhukov,

Christianity, Zhukov stated, is the polar opposite of all this, ‘based on the story of a man who has decided to put the suffering of the whole world on his shoulders, the story of a man who has taken responsibility in the greatest possible sense of the word’ and who gave us the command to “love your neighbour as yourself”, this is the main phrase of the Christian religion.’ Russia, Zhukov said, has ‘become a nation that has forgotten how to love’.

Zhukov was given a three-year suspended sentence at his December 2019 trial. On August 30, 2020, he was badly beaten up by two men and required hospital treatment. Since then, the once-prominent Zhukov seems to have disappeared from public view, with no known appearances and silent social media networks. 

On July 18, 2021, Stanislav Moskvitin, pastor of New Creation a member congregation of the Russia Council of Christian Evangelical Churches, was arrested on allegations of ‘psychological abuse’, ‘brainwashing’ and running a ‘cult’. This is the term used by the Russian Orthodox Church for Protestants who proselytise. Pastor Moskvitin was sentenced to one and a half years in a penal colony and the Ministry of Justice gave instructions that his church should be liquidated. 

That the Christian presence within and influence upon the Russian dissident movement is covered up by the Western mainstream media should not surprise us. What is surprising are the Christians who, disgusted by the moral decadence of the West, blindly accept Putin’s assertions that he is a defender of Christian civilisation.

This is not a binary choice: we can reject both Western decadence and Russian autocracy. The way in which truth is distorted in the West with evil being called good and our children being led into the mutilation of their bodies by the transgender cult is appalling. This is no reason to accept at face value the statements of a man who is prepared to murder political opponents and persecute biblical Christians. There is another, much better, way.

Alexi Navalny was able to distinguish good from evil. More than that, he and others were prepared to stand for those principles drawn from Scripture. They are prepared even to die for them. Considered by many to be foolhardy, Navalny did not regret returning to Russia and facing almost certain death, ‘because at some difficult moment I did as required by the instructions, and did not betray the commandment’.