Before, during and after the arrest: psychologists assessed the behavior of Alexey Navalny

The release is already available on the RTVI YouTube channel.

Igor Ryzov is a Russian business coach, leading negotiator and editor-in-chief of the Master of Negotiations magazine. The author of such books "The Kremlin School of Negotiations", "Tough Negotiations", "I Always Know What to Say" and "Negotiations with Monsters". He taught the negotiation skills of employees of Gazpromneft, Sberbank, Megafon, Yandex, Rostelecom, etc.

Alexey Filatov is a psychiatrist who created profiling methods, systems of complex psychodiagnostics and verification of lies. He studied in the UK, Switzerland, Portugal, France and the USA.

About behavior before poisoning:

Igor Ryzov: The personality of Alexey Navalny was divided into “before”, “during”, “after”. These are three different people. And we see different behavior. Alexey speaks very cool when he makes a show on his channel. He is the most confident, eagle look. This is really an actor. But when he gave interviews before, his uncertainty is read. He sits like a bird on a perch. On the one hand, he is very confident. On the other hand, he feels uncomfortable. Further metamorphoses took place.

Alexey Filatov: After these summer stories, when he was in Germany, we saw a completely different picture. When he came to his senses and realized what had happened, his level of bitterness increased greatly. He went for broke. In an absolutely confident, calm, harmonious position, people do not walk like that. In fact, this is either a pan, or disappeared.

About the state after a coma:

Alexey Filatov: He woke up a different person. The fact is that a coma, especially one that he had, for quite a long time, leaves an imprint, including on the psyche. Moreover, this imprint is not immediately visible, and it has a rather obvious delayed moment. These are not even days, but months. There is such a thing called PTSD. It is reflected in how a person perceives the surrounding situation, himself, feedback, assesses the situation. Of course, this has left an imprint on how he will make decisions. The situation showed how serious everything is. At that moment, he decided to go all-in - to fight like this.

Igor Ryzov: The personality of Alexey Navalny himself is a revolutionary, this is Che Guevara. Therefore, he has a very great need to create a revolution. Faced with such a situation and waking up, he realized: either pan, or disappeared. That is, I have to do something further.

About treatment in Germany:

Alexey Filatov: In Germany, he underwent a lot of rehabilitation treatment. He should have gone on with it. He was there for jogging and worked with physiotherapists. But after such poisoning, it is almost impossible to recover quickly.

About the decision to return to Russia:

Alexey Filatov: It was an impulsive act. He came to his senses, said that he would return to Russia, but did not say when. He was preparing himself to accept this idea. He understood that clearly difficult times awaited him here. And this was evident in his video. He said so: “I was sitting this morning, thinking about something. Once - and bought a ticket to Moscow for "Victory". Please welcome".

He should have waited after all. Because his psyche, state at that moment in time were weakened. Look at his facial expressions on the video [this is about the video where Alexey Navalny says that he is going to come to Russia - ed.] : It is absolutely asymmetric, very tense, and discoordinated. In psychology, there is such an understanding - the congruence of words and facial expressions. If we analyze in detail the facial analysis of this video, we will understand that a person is in deep stress. He doesn't even fully understand this stress. But it happens when a person is under stress, but he needs to be cheerful and show that everything is fine.

Igor Ryzov: For himself, he painted a triumphant return on a white horse. This is normal. The people in power are all a little hysterical. And they have a huge need for power. And he has it too. And in his head he drew it.

About returning to Russia:

Alexey Filatov: Alexey was not very much in the mood on the plane - this is evidenced by his facial expressions and gestures. Stiffness. Intense tension. And even his speech at Sheremetyevo... Despite the fact that he said that “I am happy to return to Russia”, he did not look happy.

About the detention in Vnukovo:

Alexey Filatov: "Lucky - and everything will be fine." But at that moment, when he sat next to this portrait and said “I don’t understand what is happening”, it was clear that there was no longer any hope.

About Navalny's behavior in court:

Igor Ryzov: He, being a fairly good legalist, knowing the law, the Russian courts and the legal system (let's not bother that it is peculiar), he assumed how things would develop: he would not be released. It was understandable. But this is a rather predictable step - to stay for some time until the first trial in the guise of a victim. The Russian people love sacrifice. It was predictable. And Alexey behaves as expected.

Alexey Filatov: The heart in court is a request for support. You give support, and you receive support, there is such a law, reciprocal gratitude, when you show your heart, you have to answer. This is also such an anchor for social networks. But at this moment Navalny was sincere, that is, he communicated with his wife, communicated with his audience. It is just as an anchor, as a symbol of the fact that “here I support you, and you will support me”, the formation of a certain community. And secondly, it is a symbol.

About stereotypes around Navalny:

Igor Ryzov: By putting a label on it, the system with this black and white thinking, using that thinking, hung it on everyone else. Are you for Navalny? - it means that you are inadequate. Are you against Navalny? - you are inadequate.

About the behavior of Yulia Navalnaya:

Igor Ryzov: Her photo session in Harper's Bazaar magazine is mourning and a symbol of a new rebirth. She moved from the role of an invisible person running after him from behind to the image of a public lady.

Alexey Filatov: She said: "I will always support what Alexey Navalny is doing". At that moment, it became clear that if Navalny was closed, Yulia would take this baton. And notice, she doesn't "sacrifice" outwardly.

Igor Ryzov: She demonstrates the image of an unbroken girl, as from the Nike ad “What are our girls made of?”. She is feminine, and at the same time strong and unbreakable.

About Navalny's condition now:

Alexey Filatov: When Alexey returned to Russia, both physically and psychologically, he was not okay, this was obvious and was evident from his behavior, from his facial expressions, from his speech. He clearly did not have time to recover. Now, most likely, the consequences of poisoning and these difficult periods in prison or in a colony will worsen even more, because the situation there is no less tough.

Here, in Russia, it was clear that he was emotionally and mentally unbalanced, but it is generally impossible to blame him for anything, because any person in his situation would behave unpredictably.

Alexey must be given his due: he is still holding on in such a tough situation. Very few people would be able to behave calmly, balanced, and prudently in this situation. “Oh, he could have been better”, but everyone could have been better.