Hero, Martyr, or Forgotten Extremist?: Narratives about Alexei Navalny’s Death in Russian Official and Exile Media

• In Event: War and Opposition in Russia’s Media Narratives

Abstract

On February 16, 2024, 2.19 pm Moscow time the federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District announced the death of Alexei Navalny, the most prominent critic of Vladimir Putin. At the time of his death Navalny was 47 years old and was serving a total sentence of more than 30 years in prison for a variety of charges including extremism. For more than a decade Navalny has been actively opposing Russian regime and fighting for “beautiful Russia of the future”. The West has declared him Putin’s greatest enemy, while Putin himself never mentioned Navalny by name. Russian chief propagandists have claimed that Navalny did not matter and was forgotten by everyone, at the same time for many Russians Navalny represented a hope of a different future for Russia. Recognizing the importance of explaining the sudden death of Russia’s opposition leader to Russian audiences and assigning blame, this paper asks how Navalny’s death have been narrated by Russian official and exile media in the first week after his passing. The analysis in this paper is based on a variety of pro-government and exile media sources – the news on Pervyi Kanal (First Channel), the socio-political talk show 60 minutes and evening with Vladimir Solovyov on Rossiya (Russia Channel), Meduza, Ekho and TvRain. The timeframe for the analysis is between 16 and 23 February 2024.

Author

• Natalia Moen-Larsen, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (Norway)