‘We don’t realise how strong we actually are. The only thing crucial for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.’
These are the words of Alexei Navalny, one in every of Russia’s most well-known opposition politicians of recent times, who’s reported to have died in a penal colony last week.
The circumstances of his death are uncertain and his family are yet to see his body. He was serving 19 years’ imprisonment on charges of extremism – widely and internationally considered to be politically motivated for his vocal criticism of Vladimir Putin’s regime.
He was imprisoned within the IK-3 penal colony within the Arctic Circle, where temperatures go as little as -20 degrees and where the prison discipline is thought to be brutal. In 2022, he spent nearly 300 days in solitary confinement.
Navalny gained prominence as a politician who vigorously exposed corruption in Russian politics. He was for some time an embarrassing thorn within the side of the Putin regime until he and his team gave evidence of the private wealth of Putin and his closest allies. He was from then on viewed as a serious threat to Putin’s power as many young followers responded to his activism, questioning the viability of the 2012 elections and taking to the streets in protest. Eventually, his campaign was outlawed and he was charged as an extremist.
Navalny was admired for his humour and sarcasm throughout immense suffering – even passing witty messages from prison to his lawyers stuffed with his dark sense of humour.
His courage can also be undeniable. He selected to return to Russia from Germany after an in depth run attempt on his life with the deadly Novichok nerve agent, later utilized in the Salisbury poisonings on one other Russian dissident. He returned to Russia in the total knowledge that he could be arrested upon landing – separated from his family and imprisoned with no guarantee for his safety. But as The Times obituary put it, ‘He knew that Russians admire the uncompromising’, so return he did.
A friend identified to me this weekend that in later life Navalny stated publicly that he was a Christian. In his public statement during his 2021 trial, he’s reported to have gone into some detail, explaining his Christian faith.
Like much of the activist movement, he had originally been – in his own words – ‘quite a militant atheist’, and recognised that his latest faith set him up for ridicule by his own political friends and allies.
He seems to talk of a weight lifted from his shoulders due to clarity of the Bible. He said, ‘But now I’m a believer, and it helps me quite a bit in my activities because every little thing becomes much, much easier … because there may be a book during which, normally, it’s… clearly written what motion to absorb every situation. It’s not all the time easy to follow … but I’m actually trying … as I said, its easier for me probably than for a lot of others to have interaction in politics.’
Navalny cited the Sermon on the Mount – ‘Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will likely be satisfied’ – and said, ‘I’ve all the time thought that this commandment is kind of an instruction to activity.’
I would not need to put words in his mouth, I after all didn’t know Alexei Navalny, and these are only his reported words from a friendly publication. But within the clarity of the Bible’s instruction he appeared to have found each a spur to motion and a ‘real form of satisfaction’ in doing what was required of him.
In the courageous example of Alexei Navalny, what can Western Christians learn? In our relative comfort, can we understand the peace he had in following his conviction and boldly stating where those convictions got here from, despite the fact that it each put him at odds with the authorities who opposed him and even brought criticism and incredulity from his own allies? Imagine what it will need to have taken to board that flight back to Russia, trading in his freedom and family life for an uncertain future in a penal colony.
Navalny shows a lesson in persistence and perspective too. He didn’t see the autumn of Putin’s regime in his lifetime, yet he was still prepared to fight with whatever he had, even when it was with letters to his lawyers from a freezing prison cell. Many of us in politics may not live to see the grave injustices in our context ended for good. Are we still prepared to act?
To end, let’s remember the words of Psalm 2: ‘Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the Earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and his anointed one…
‘So now kings be clever; receive instruction, you judges of the Earth. Serve the Lord with reverential awe and rejoice with trembling. Pay homage to the Son or he will likely be indignant and you’ll perish in your rebel, for his anger may ignite in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.’
Like Navalny, can we rest within the sure knowledge of God’s sovereignty even amidst awful circumstances, while still resolving to hunger and thirst for righteousness wherever God has placed us and with whatever God has put in our hands?
Tim Farron has been the Member of Parliament for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005, and served because the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party from 2015 to 2017.Tim can also be the host of Premier’s ‘A Mucky Business’ podcast. His latest book A Mucky Business: Why Christians should become involved in politics is published in November.
