“But it’s also never good to be caught on camera attempting a coup”
In terms of history and process it is an error to call a “colour revolution” a “coup”.
What was dangerous for Navalny was the existing government he was against was and is a dictatorship. I don’t know when it has ever been morally wrong to seek foreign assistance against a dictator. Yes, even dictators get to call their government the “legitimate” government of their country and in some legal sense that is true, and in a strict legal sense even plotting against a dictator is “treason”.
Our nations founders plotted against their British government and sought the assistance of foreign nations (France) to overthrow that government. Our founders had legitimate gripes against the British and no doubt Navalny’s gripes against the Putin cabal were equally valid.
Who knows, in the long run of Russian history Navalny may later be considered a hero.
“Who knows, in the long run of Russian history Navalny may later be considered a hero.”
This may be sooner than later.
Putin may have made a serious mistake here. Navalny alive was a political prisoner and a living example to other people not to challenge the Putin regime.
Now that Navalny is dead he has become a martyr.
It also matters that Russians are affected by a kind of fatalism that is unknown in the West. If they think they’re going to die anyway the Russian people will not avoid their fate. Not at all. They will charge into it headlong.
Now there’s people in Russia who do not believe in Putin’s grand delusion of the ‘Russkiy Mir’ who will rise up. And they will fight.
The question is will it be hundreds of them, thousands of them, or millions of them?