Embassy's Reply to the Article by Revolution Dube and Sarah Hudleston “Zanu-PF taking leaf out of Kremlin’s book should put continent on guard” (Business Day, 25 April 2021)

We took note of the article “Zanu-PF taking leaf out of Kremlin’s book should put continent on guard” by Revolution Dube and Sarah Hudleston, published in Business Day on 25 April 2021. While labelling Russia as “de facto dictatorship” authors provide assertions instead of facts. Readers are left with innuendos, lies and “analysis” that contradicts its own logic.

The article starts with describing Mr.Navalny doing his time in “one of the country’s most notorious jails” (we wish the authors would explain what’s so “notorious” about that jail). Trying to represent Mr.Navalny as a “political prisoner”, the authors “forget” to mention that he was sentenced for fraud - not for his political activity. We explained that in Embassy’s article “Pride and Prejudice in Modern Geopolitics” (can be found on Russian Embassy’s website). The authors conclude that “Putin is taking a degree of political risk by keeping Navalny in prison” because “allowing him to die” there will make him a martyr. Earlier they supposed that Mr.Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent “allegedly administrated by Russian state agents”. So, “poisoning” Mr.Navalny wasn’t a “political risk” but keeping him in prison somehow is?

Besides, he is not dying. If he feels weak, it is because of his 3-week-long hunger strike against prison rules he doesn’t like. He is administered vitamins.

“Russian elections are not free and fair as the opposition is not allowed access to television”, authors claim. That’s not true. In Russia, there are TV channels (“Dozhd” (Rain), “RBK”), radio stations (“Silver Rain”, “Echo of Moscow”) newspapers (“Meduza”, “Novaya Gazeta”) and other nationwide media promoting pro-opposition agenda.

In conclusion, we would like to recommend the authors to travel to Russia and observe the situation in our country with their own eyes before making a new article.