Sad but not surprising news
I heard about Alexey Navalny's death just as I was walking into meet with officials from Austria's ministry for integration, women, families and media yesterday.
The news of Navalny’s death is very sad, but unlike what many senior politicians have been saying publicly, hardly surprising. He knew when he boarded that flight back to Moscow from Berlin, together with his wife, and was then immediately separated from her the second he stepped beyond passport control, what he was flying back to. He knew there was a very good chance in Russia he would be killed by the same people who had already tried, and failed in spectacular fashion, to murder him once. Opinions about Navalny vary widely, and although I think it is fair to say he did not command any kind of broad popularity within Russia at the moment of his death, he will surely be remembered for his incredible raw bravery in an era of cover-your-own-ass leaders and decision-makers. To take on the Russian state and Putin’s apparatus is no small feat, and he continued to do it as others emigrated or were imprisoned. I hope he will be remembered for this bravery above all else, and his sense of humour, which shone through in every documentary or YouTube interview he gave. Sitting inside today’s Russia as someone born into neither connections nor privilege, it is practically impossible to imagine that one ordinary man can spark a moment and make a difference. Navalny proved that was possible, even if his mission was ultimately cut short by those whom he threatened with his very existence.
One of my first thoughts after I heard the news is that he won’t even get a proper funeral as the tens of thousands of Russians who would have come to mourn have long left Russia. Those in Russia who are expressing their sorrow are having their flowers immediately removed. Same at the Russian embassy here in Vienna (not that this should be a surprise to anyone, either).
There are several moving remembrance pieces which were written in haste yesterday by those far more eloquent than me. I would recommend, in no particular order:
Sergey Radchenko: Hope for Russia has died with Navalny
“Putin has tasted blood, and found the delicacy appealing to the palate. He does not just kill opposition activists. He has already killed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians. Drenched in the blood of his victims, Putin talks history.”
Arkady Ostrovsky: What Navalny’s death means for Russia, Putin and the world
"Navalny’s death has seemed imminent for months. And yet there is something crushing about it. He was not alone in believing that good triumphs over evil, and that heroes vanquish villains...To see that moral order so brutally overturned is a terrible affront."
It most certainly feels, everywhere you look, like we are living in a time when evil prevails. I think about that a lot as a mother. What do I say to my kids? How do I explain all of this? Growing up in the late 1980s and early 1990s, we were lucky to experience quite the opposite. Certainly in this part of the world, things were unravelling, but in the way that things must sometimes get immediately worse in order to get better in the long-run. The fall of communism gave home. The rise of authoritarian fascist leaders across the globe now gives anything but hope. Back then, American democracy had not yet been questioned, more people still believed in the American dream, and China was a second thought. That has all since changed.
One thing is crystal clear, and Ukrainian president Zelensky summed it up very succinctly this morning at the Munich Security Conference. Putin is emboldened, and Ukraine alone cannot stop him. Only an incredibly naive soul would think Russia would stop with Ukraine. Because at the moment, everything they do, they more or less get away with. The infamous “red lines” are nowhere to be seen.
Navalny’s death was not the only one to shake Russia yesterday. One of the country’s most talented photographers, who captured the gritty world of forgotten people and towns, died yesterday. Dmitry Markov was only 41. I have been following his work for years, mesmerised by the images. The last time I was in New York, years ago, there was even a small exhibit of his photographs in a lower Manhattan gallery. If you understand Russian, I really recommend this 2020 interview Yury Dud did with Dmitry.
Here is a thread highlighting Markov’s work and rare talent. He struggled with drug addiction and spoke openly about it.
Turning back to Austria, I received a message from a French journalist yesterday that she interviewed Maryna and her daughter and mother, three generations of women from Mykolaiv, now in Vienna, about whom I wrote a while ago, while they were still job searching and looking for housing. Maryna is truly an inspiration. She found a job at a supermarket chain here in Vienna, managed to rent an apartment despite all the landlords telling her at first that she does not earn enough to cover rent for there people, only one of whom works. She wrote me last night about how it is not easy. She wakes up at 3:40am to get to work which starts at 05:10, and then after work she heads to German class which run from 18:15 to 20:45. She explains she is physically exhausted: the work is demanding on the body, she had to compete against twenty-somethings to get hired. But she knows she is on the right path. She tells me proudly her daughter travelled to the European Parliament in Brussels with her gymnasium class. She is set to graduate from gymnasium next year, no small feat for a teenager who only arrived in Austria less than two years ago.
The full stories here in French and English.
Maryna told me proudly she was invited recently by ÖIF and her employer to talk about her job with other Ukrainian women.
It was with women like her in mind that we went yesterday to meet representatives from the federal ministry responsible for integration, women, families and media (yes, it is quite a mix mash of assignments). Our goal was to talk about issues everyone is concerned with: perspectives for legally staying in Austria longer-term, social benefits/work, education for adults and children. We did, I think, manage to convey most of the main issues, although the funny thing is when you speak with government, you very quickly are reminded that the person sitting in front of you is responsible for X but not Y and Z. Those people might be sitting across the street or across the river. The way we govern, if you think about it, is still very Kafka-esque in its lack of efficiency. The people who make decisions and legislative suggestions are often the furthest removed from the actual reality on the street. That is where volunteers like us come in, and try and shed some light in language they can understand.
This particular ministry is really focused on German language classes and exams, which is not surprising given they run this giant bohemeth of a government organization which oversees how German is taught to foreigners newly arrived in Austria. The ironic thing is I never knew any of this existed when I arrived. I can now do an entire meeting in (grammatically incorrect, often) German, and I did point that out in the sense many paths lead to Rome. For whatever reason, existing red tape that needs to be fed out of the budget to justify its existence, or a true belief that one cannot have a decent life in Austria without a certain level of German knowledge (I don’t disagree with that premise but I believe there are a variety of routes to achieving this), this particular ministry seems more focused on German language than anything else.
So I left the meeting (Heldenplatz was already closed off by police in preparation for the far right ball later that evening — this too is Austria 2024) and immediately shared that advice, coupled with what we heard earlier this week from the labor minister: if you plan on staying in Austria long-term, the best way to prepare yourself to qualify under the schemes they are discussing but have not yet made public nor finalised, is to have legal employment in Austria plus have attended German courses and passed exams to a certain level. Work and German language skills. Both are seen by the authorities as necessary.
It is what it is.
With English the dominant language of international business, travel, cultural life, there is a fear in some European countries where the knowledge of English is very high amongst the population (as it is in Austria) that it will “take over” and one must stress that the working language here is German. This is no news to me, and I make an effort to speak my less than perfect German in all official situations, as a sign of respect.
I think back to Maryna’s day, starting in the middle of the night, and ending well into the evening, and understand that she is in a slim minority capable of such hard work and such a schedule. The reality will be that many will not meet all these criteria, and then the big question will be how will they be categorised from a legal perspective. I can imagine the EU may just throw up its hands and extend temporary protection beyond March 2025, simply because it has no other idea what to do. We will see. For now, Ukrainians are still waiting in limbo for official guidelines.
As I type this, Russian police are brutally arresting citizens who came out to mourn Navalny’s death in Moscow. Police tell one group of young people to go back and mourn his death “in the subway”.
The one thing that doesn’t make sense to me, is why now? The “election” in Russia next month is anyway a done deal. Navalny posed no threat sitting in the Arctic Circle. And yet Putin was shown yesterday afternoon, making a public appearance in Chelyabinsk, positively beaming.
It was personal. Very much so.
It is up to the world to show there are red lines. If we still believe in them.