Navalny

“We don’t realize how strong we actually are. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. So don’t be inactive.” So said Alexei Navalny in anticipating his own death at the hands of the Putin regime. Sadly, the reality he saw as a distinct possibility was just realized in a Russia jail. Most headlines are announcing that Navalny died in prison. It was a slow motion murder. Alexander Vindman cuts to the chase. Alexei Navalny was murdered by Vladimir Putin. “After sending his wife a Valentine’s Day message and appearing on camera on February 15th, Navalny reportedly ‘felt sick after a walk and lost consciousness.’ Only a fool would take Russia’s announcement at face value – it is clear that Alexei Navalny’s death was an assassination by the murderous regime of Vladimir Putin.”

+ President Biden agrees: “Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death. Putin does not only target citizens of other countries, as we’ve seen in what’s going on in Ukraine right now — he also inflicts terrible crimes on his own people.” Unfortunately, the American Congress, held hostage by a corrupted cult, continues to remain inactive, even when the only action required is to offer a modicum of support for the Ukrainians actually brave enough to stand up to this international menace.

+ Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Why Russia Killed Navalny: “The Russian prison system has said he collapsed after months of ill health. Perhaps he was murdered more directly, but the details don’t matter: The Russian state killed him. Putin killed him—because of his political success, because of his ability to reach people with the truth, and because of his talent for breaking through the fog of propaganda that now blinds his countrymen, and some of ours as well. He is also dead because he returned to Russia from exile in 2021, having already been poisoned twice, knowing he would be arrested. By doing so he turned himself from an ordinary Russian into something else: a model of what civic courage can look like, in a country that has very little of it. Not only did he tell the truth, but he wanted to do so inside Russia, where Russians could hear him.”

+ Navalny seen in video link a day before his reported death.

+ For a great look at Navalny’s fight, and his efforts to uncover Putin’s other attempt on his life, watch the excellent documentary, Navalny.