We all shook today when we found out that Alexei Navalny died in a Russian prison. The news reverberated throughout the world and in Russia itself.  All I know about Navalny I have learned through his portrayal in the western media. This includes statements about Navalny’s character by Ambassador Michael McFaul, who knew Navalny personally and considered him a friend.

Digging deeper, particularly in circles of Russians, Navalny does not appear to be the knight in shining armor that we all think we know. Apparently, many Russians do not support Navalny and even consider him to be further on the right than Putin.

Here is an interesting article in the Workers World, which gives an entirely different viewpoint of Navalny, his history, and his status.

Alexei Navalny: Why is Biden supporting a Russian fascist? – Workers World

I might warn you, if you have never read anything in Workers World: It is the official newspaper of the Workers World Party (WWP), a communist party in the United States. So you might take its content with a grain of salt. Even in this article they denounce capitalism as a systemic tool of abuse of workers.

I have to state and admit that I do not have more information than what I read in the western media and what sources like Workers World downplay as western liberal propaganda.

If you are interested in learning more about Russia, its propaganda machine, its disinformation engine and its brutal oppression of political opponents, pick up the book Red Notice by Bill Browder.

This experience highlights to me how little we actually know about what is really going on in the world. It does not surprise me when I hear that 70 million people, many of whom consume only information propagated by Fox News, plan on voting for candidate Trump in the next election. They can’t help it. It’s all they know.

Just like I can’t help it. I am not sure I know what Navalny really stood for in Russia, and how much of what I read in opposing articles like the one I linked to above is reality, or just another flavor of Russian propaganda.

This shows how hugely important it is to have a free press and have a choice so we can choose as unbiased a source as we can.