WORCESTER, Mass. - As international outrage and questions surrounding the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny continue, Spectrum News discussed it's impact with Clark University political science professor Valerie Sperling.
What You Need To Know
- Alexei Navalnay died in a remote Russian penal colony last week. Navalny, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was the leader of the Russian opposition
- Clark University's Valerie Sperling teaches a variety of courses in comparative politics and her research interests lie mainly at the intersection of Russian politics and gender studies
- The White House is promising "major sanctions" on Russia in response to Navalny’s death
Q: Alexei Navalny was the most prominent critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin. He was serving a sentence in a Russian penal colony and the cause of his death is still unclear, but what impact does it seem to be having in Russia as well as internationally?
A: Alexei Navalny's life, I think, will be more impactful than his death. He had an extraordinary, outsized impact on Russian politics and in the broader society at will and globally in that he gave a lot of people hope for a long time that a more democratic Russia was possible. And he did that in really concrete ways as a political activist.
Q: Adding to the ongoing situation of Navalny’s family working to recover his body, the White House is talking about imposing major sanctions on Russia; what will those sanctions mean?
A: Well, we don't know what they are yet, they'll be announced on Friday. But sanctions work best on countries that care about their international reputation. And I think at this point, it's pretty clear that Russia's regime in power doesn't really care about its international reputation."
Q: Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, is making it clear she believes president Valdimir Putin is responsible for the death of her husband. What role might she now play in Navalny’s work and the Russian opposition?
A: I think that Yulia Navalnaya could play as significant a role in the Russian opposition as she wants. In the past, she had always said that she wasn't interested in that. But listening to her remarks that were posted to YouTube on Monday, in her statement, she came close to saying that she would be interested in taking on that kind of leadership role.
She said the main thing we can do for Alexei and ourselves is to keep fighting. She said, 'I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny. I will continue to fight for our country, and I encourage you to stand by my side.' So, I think in saying those things, I don't think that she's necessarily promising to take on that kind of role, but she's leaving the door open to step in to that kind of role.