Navalny somehow remains optimistic

Vladimir Putin's bitterest political enemy, Alexei Navalny, manages to sound optimistic and cheerful even when he is speaking from jail. He has two years in prison before him for a breach of his terms of parole connected to a 2014 embezzlement charge and who knows what the Kremlin has in mind for keeping him in prison after he has served his two years. Yet when he emerges to appear in court he looks relaxed and confident, as if he expects some miracle will happen and Putin will back down and allow him to be his main political opponent free of restraint. The reason he breached his 2014 parole terms was because he was in a hospital in Germany receiving life-and-death treatment after being poisoned with novichok nerve agent. The Kremlin says he spent too long in Germany after his medical treatment, so as soon as he returned to Moscow, the "justice" system put him behind bars. How he remains optimistic when he knows that Putin can arrange for him to be arrested whenever he wants,it is difficult to understand. The news today talked about how the big-crowd protests in support of Navalny could lead to Putin's downfall. This is of course total nonsense. Putin has the full security apparatus behind him and there is no way he is going to be forced out however loudly the crowds shout for an end to his reign. Putin is here to stay. There are so many wonderful things about Russia - the language, the people, the ballet, the music, the literature, the vast landscapes, the history - but all we get is Putin Putin Putin and the terrible corruption of power and organised crime and military aggression. Perhaps it's all the good things about Russia that keep Navalny smiling. I guess he can dream but while he remains in jail his voice will be suppressed, and his hopes for a better future for his country will never materialise.