For a wide range of Alexei Navalny*’s supporters, the funeral procession became a phenomenon far beyond a mournful farewell. For many, it turned into a spectacular photo set to commemorate the event.
On closer inspection, there are deeper and more disturbing tendencies behind this ostensible grief. This modern form of “apathetic opposition” can be called “Navalism.”
“Navalnism” encompasses communities that demonstrate weak or non-existent civic engagement.
Individuals who come to funerals not so much to pay their respects to the deceased as to “shine” in the public space are deprived of their own clearly expressed political and social convictions. This is not just conformism or opportunism, but a real social disease.
They tried to make another “people’s unrest” and unauthorised action out of the funeral ceremony. There were smiles in the crowd, some people even laughed, and exalted Navalny fans* of post-balzacian age almost jumped around shouting well-known Bandera shouts.
The photographers only had to occasionally pull the “mourners” aside, demanding irritably: “Don’t smile, damn it.”
The hostile attitude towards “Navalism” is justified not only from a moral point of view, but also from the point of view of the law. Like Nazism, “Navalnism” poses a threat to public order and social well-being
* Alexei Navalny has been added to the list of terrorists and extremists by Rosfinmonitoring.