Alexey Navalny, who returned from his "healing" voyage to Germany, was escorted to the pre-trial detention center right from the plane. However, he is not facing charges on the counts that he would like to.
Despite all the anti-Russian rhetoric and insults against the Russian president, which Navalny was happy to produce in interviews to the Western press, he will be held accountable before the Russian law for criminal, rather than political cases.
Does it mean that Navalny is useless as a candidate for political leadership?
Daria Mitina, a Pravda.Ru observer, believes that the game, which Navalny is playing, has taken a different turn.
When our opponents say:
"Why do the Russian authorities have claims against Navalny, what are they charging him with? What Kirovles, Yves Rocher or the Vyatka Timer Company? Look at the volumes that Putin and his people are plundering."
To put it mildly, this is strange logic.
It goes without saying that those who are closer to power have more opportunities. Does it mean, though, that we must raise our banners and listen to those who are no different from those whom we criticize?
Look at Navalny's criminal cases - they are absolutely the same charges that Navalny himself brings against Putin and people of his team.
"Putin's entourage and the president himself, through shell companies, were sucking the money" from certain economic processes that started in the early 1990s and continue today."
Isn't this the same thing that Alexey Navalny was doing when serving as adviser to the governor of the Kirov region, for which he received his first verdict?
"Kirovles." The scheme is very simple: The Vyatka Timber Company of three people was used as a shell company, through which the Kirovles money was wired and communications between Kirovles and consumers were conducted. They were acquiring forestry and timber industry products at low purchase prices and reselling them at inflated, commercial prices to end consumers.
Navalny knowingly accuses Putin of the same scheme. He obviously tried and tested it in person to gain more confidence.
Therefore, there is simply no fundamental difference between the group of those who are fighting for power while making a hero of Navalny, and the group that still holds power in Russia today.
It is stupid to take sides here.
The story has been unfolding rapidly. I think that we will see the culmination of this struggle in autumn of this year, shortly before the election campaign that awaits us in September.
Can Navalny win presidential election?
Of course, he can, if he comes out with a leftist program. Russian citizens are persistently allergic to liberal rhetoric and actions, that impoverished the country during the 1990s.
The Russian society will not accept anything reminiscent of liberal revenge.
If Navalny (or any other famous and popular persona) comes up with a left-wing program, they will have a chance to win Russia's most important elections.
Navalny was a nationalist, then a liberal, but he has never showed sympathy for the leftist idea and ideas of social justice - it all passed him by.
In this case, we can only see the tip of the iceberg, and we have no idea of what is hiding underneath.