Even mourning is forbidden
The Kremlin's fear of Alexei Navalny must have been immeasurably great. In 2020, the Russian secret service carried out an attack on him with nerve poison, which he barely survived. Then, after recovering and returning to Moscow (he was treated in Berlin for months), the judiciary immediately took him, probably the strongest, most sophisticated and also most daring Russian opposition member, into custody and sentenced him to 30 years in a camp in absurd proceedings. And when all this still doesn't silence Navalny, he was transferred to a penal camp in the Arctic Circle at the end of last year.
And Navalny spoke out again, cheerfully and irreverently, despite the unimaginable physical and psychological torment he had to endure. They just seem to have fueled his sarcasm. On
The news of his death coincided with the start of the Munich Security Conference, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj had personally traveled to ask the world for weapons and ammunition for his attacked country. Ukrainian troops have just had to withdraw from the hard-fought city of Avdiivka - it is the greatest military success for Russia since the conquest of Bakhmut, which was fought over in a similarly bitter and long manner. Navalny had always condemned Putin's war against Ukraine.
The arrests in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities show how great the Kremlin's fear of Navalny is, even after his death. Russians are not even allowed to mourn the 47-year-old, or even lay flowers. His body has still not been returned to his family. A few weeks before the pseudo-election in Russia, no political martyr should be born.
The circumstances of Navalny's death are still unclear, and may remain so for a long time. It is clear who is responsible for this. Only if demands come from the hip again soon that “we” have to “negotiate” with Putin soon.
You can read more about the background here: “The police officers are immediately behind us.”
Never again also applies to Hanau
It only took Tobias R. a few minutes to kill them on the night of February 19, 2020: Ferhat Unvar, Hamza Kurtović, Said Nesar Hashemi, Vili-Viorel Păun, Mercedes Kierpacz, Kaloyan Velkov, Fatih Saraçoğlu, Sedat Gürbüz, Gökhan Gültekin . R. then returned home, killed his mother and then himself - so he could not be held accountable. Along with the NSU murders, the Hanau attacks were probably the largest right-wing extremist attacks in German post-war history.
Since then, the survivors have struggled with the pain of losing their children and siblings. They also struggle with the country in which they were born and raised (read my colleague Özlem Gezer and my colleague Timofey Neshitov's award-winning story about Hanau here). That they immigrated to. Even after four years, there are still a lot of questions. For example this one: How could it be that officers from the special operations team were on duty that night and were themselves part of a right-wing chat group? Said Etris Hashemi recalled this scandal again recently in Markus Lanz's talk show. Hashemi lost his younger brother and was shot himself.
Four years after Hanau and 18 years after the last murder by the NSU neo-Nazi terrorist gang, the question arises as to whether the state and society are really learning. In both cases, relatives and survivors feel left alone and not taken seriously enough, as the Federal Government's Anti-Discrimination Commissioner also points out.
Part of the answer can be found in the high approval ratings for the AfD. Another part is currently on German streets weekend after weekend, where thousands demonstrate for their pluralistic society and democracy - including in Hanau yesterday.
You can read more background information here: Ataman accuses Germany of failing after the Hanau attack
This gold doesn't glitter
. Just like that. When the world was different, this probably wouldn't have happened. A mining accident is shaking Turkey these days, but it is an event that is ongoing. I have to correct myself: It shocks a part of Turkey, because there, too, the capacity to absorb horrors will at some point be exhausted in the midst of out-of-control inflation, the still fresh memory of last year's devastating earthquake with more than 50,000 deaths and constant political stress.
When the mining accident in Soma occurred almost ten years ago, half the world was in the western Turkish city, and 301 miners died.
There were gigantic masses of earth - we're talking about ten million cubic meters of mud and rubble - that began to slide in an open gold mine in Erzincan province on Tuesday afternoon. According to official information, nine workers are said to have been buried. Environmentalists and experts are now very concerned that the cyanide-containing tailings could contaminate the water in the region - the Euphrates is just around the corner. The gold is washed out of the rock using a cyanide solution, a method that is as controversial as it is effective.
Accusations are now being made that those responsible have neglected safety. The hope that the workers can still be saved alive is dwindling.
The Turkish Environment Ministry has closed the mine. In 2022, the mine had been shut down for a few months because cyanide had leaked from a raw quarry. However, it was reopened after the operators paid a fine.
More on the topic: Turkish gold mine closed after devastating landslide
Read the current SPIEGEL editorial here
The turning point must finally begin:
At the Munich Security Conference, the Ukrainian President speaks to the conscience of the Western allies. The wars of the future will no longer only be fought on the traditional battlefields.
Click here for the current daily quiz
The starting question today: Which years are associated with the so-called November Revolution in Germany?
Loser of the day...
…is Fabrice Leggeri, the former head of the European border protection agency Frontex.
Two years ago, the Frenchman fell over his handling of illegal pushbacks from migrants. He has now announced that he wants to run for Marine Le Pen's far-right Rassemblement National in the European elections at the beginning of June.
For months, Leggeri had tried to cover up the pushbacks and the role of Frontex employees in them, as research by SPIEGEL, Lighthouse Reports and the French newspaper Le Monde revealed. They also revealed the nature of a man who became increasingly radical in his views over time. “He did not show any empathy for women and children who were abandoned in the Aegean,” his colleagues wrote at the time. Maybe what belongs together is now simply growing together.
You can read more background information here: Ex-Frontex boss Leggeri is running for Rassemblement National
The latest reports from the night
Trump is now hawking sneakers - in gold, of course:
Donald Trump was recently fined 350 million. He could really use additional income there. The latest licensed item could soon be adorning the feet of MAGA fans.
"Oppenheimer" wins at Baftas:
Christopher Nolan's epic about the inventor of the atomic bomb wins seven times in London. “Poor Things” and “Anatomy of a Case” with Sandra Hülser were also honored.
Denmark wants to donate all of its artillery ammunition to Ukraine:
Denmark is making a symbolic gesture and sending all of its artillery stocks to the Ukrainian front. The Czech Republic has also apparently tracked down hundreds of thousands of grenades for the fight against Russia.
I would particularly like to recommend this story to you today:
"Hello coach, when can we play table tennis again?"
: It wasn't long ago that gymnasts, volleyball players and badminton players trained here. There are now beds for refugees in the multi-purpose hall in Bad Tölz Wolfratshausen, Bavaria. And that leads to distribution struggles on site. My colleague Jan Friedmann reports on the Hallenzoff in the district, which is an example of conflicts and confrontations in German communities that are assigned refugees. It's a dispute over sports facilities and community halls. But it's also about this question, writes Jan: "How many refugees can and how many does Germany still want to take in?"
I wish you a good start to the day.
Yours, Özlem Topçu, deputy head of the foreign department