German mass media on Navalny

Orkhan Sattarov, the head of the European bureau of Vestnik Kavkaza

The elections of Moscow mayor and unexpectedly high result of Alexei Navalny found broad resonance in the German mass media. German journalists (most of the, usually criticize the Russian government) predicts successful political career to the opposition blogger as the main rival of the current authorities. Die Zeit calls Navalny “a dark horse” and writes that the trial against him has made his opposition critics harsh up. Many in the West don’t understand why “the Kremlin let him take part in the elections, rather than sent him in prison.” At the same time, the Western media tries to find only political context in the court’s sentence, despite the fact that the court power and the executive power are divided in Russia.

Die Welt reports, commenting on Navalny’s participation in the election campaign: “The Kremlin wanted to prove that the opposition would fail, even under fair elections. For Navalny 27% means success and recognition.” The periodical also cites the deputy director of the organization Golos, Grigory Melkonyantz. “The elections were unusual. There was real competition, and the administration of the city took measures on improvement of transparency. However, “administrative resource” was still used for mobilization of those voters who would vote for Sobyanin,” he notes.

Süddeutsche Zeitung describes the political path of the Moscow blogger, opposition activist and politician in details in the article headlined “Alexei Navalny: the outpost of hope with a spot” and speaks about nationalist views of Navalny who doesn’t hide them. The periodical reminds that Navalny was excluded from Yabloko Party in 2007 for his statements in which he compared migrants with cockroaches and participation in “Russian Marche” activities.

In general German mass media doesn’t doubt in legitimacy of Sergey Sobyanin’s victory, emphasizing his professional management skills. At the same time, Spiegel writes, the high result of Navalny is a kind of a “yellow card” which was shown to the current authorities by Moscow residents.