[Peace-discuss] Russiagate falls apart...again: Russians don't buy Navalny poisoning narrative, poll says

[J.B. Nicholson]

https://on.rt.com/ay0g

> Half of Russians believe alleged Navalny poisoning was faked or carried out by 
> Western intelligence, only 15% blame Kremlin – poll
> 
> A recent study has revealed that only a sixth of Russians believe Alexey Navalny’s
> narrative that he was poisoned by the country’s authorities, with almost a third
> (30%) suspecting that the opposition figure staged the event
> 
> The survey, conducted by Levada, also revealed that 19 percent of respondents
> believe that Western intelligence agencies are responsible for the poisoning –
> four percent more than blame the Kremlin. Last week, President Vladimir Putin
> linked the activist to foreign states, specifically claiming he works alongside US
> special services.
> 
> The results come after a fortnight of twists and turns in the Navalny case, with
> the opposition figure naming eight Federal Security Service (FSB) agents he
> believes are responsible for being part of an operation to murder him. The
> long-time Moscow protest leader also published a phone call with a man he said was
> part of the FSB team, who appeared to confess to his role in the supposed plot.
> 
> Of the other common answers, seven percent blamed the poisoning on “personal
> revenge” by someone implicated in one of Navalny’s many corruption investigations,
> and another six percent blamed a struggle within the Russian opposition.
> 
> Opinions about the alleged poisoning were strongly split along age group lines,
> with 40 percent of over-55s believing it was faked, compared to just nine percent
> of 18-24s. Those below 25 were much more likely to blame the Russian authorities
> (34%).
> 
> The survey also revealed that almost a fifth of respondents hadn’t ever heard
> about the case, with 17 percent noting they are following it very closely.
> 
> Named for its founder, the late Yuri Levada, the Levada Center polling company has
> often been accused of liberal bias. In 2016, the pollsters were accused of
> “performing the functions of a foreign agent” by Russian authorities, and the
> center has admitted to receiving Western funding in the past.


So, Russians -- the people whose safety was allegedly most likely threatened by Alexy 
Navalny's alleged poisoning -- mostly don't buy the Western-serving narrative that 
Navalny was poisoned at all. I doubt that many Americans even know who Navalny is let 
alone know about this alleged poisoning.

The available evidence also contradicts Navalny's version of the story. And like so 
many Russiagate stories, the story makes little sense on its face: we're supposed to 
believe that Navalny's minority political opposition to Vladimir Putin was such a 
threat to Putin that Putin ordered Navalny dead. But if Putin wanted Navalny dead, 
Navalny would be dead. Yet Navalny lives (we're told that he's another alleged victim 
of one of the allegedly very powerful 'novichok' -- Russian for 'newcomer' -- 
poisons). How the alleged poison was handled in Navalny's hotel room is very suspect 
(as was the handling of the Skripal home and pets by the UK government which killed 
Skripal's pets for no clear reason and bought his house and everything in it also for 
no clear reason).