As I write these words, I am filled with anger and despair. It’s not because I’m surprised by the villainy of the Russian president – it’s sadly well established by now. But because I am shocked and disappointed that America, the bastion of freedom, might abandon the fight against Putin’s evil. House Republican leaders are giving every indication that they intend to avenge Mr. Navalny’s killers by cutting off Russia’s victims of Ukraine from further U.S. aid, thereby cutting off even more good people. It is inevitable that Navalny will suffer his fate.
The circumstances of Navalny’s death remain unclear. But whatever the cause of death is listed on his death certificate, there is no doubt as to who killed him. He was murdered by Putin. Navalny was a tireless and fearless crusader against corruption and for freedom. He thus posed a deadly threat to the dictator, who had established Russia’s most complete personal despotism since the days of Joseph Stalin.
Putin had already tried to poison Navalny with a nerve agent once in 2020. Navalny survived thanks to the treatment he received in Germany. He could easily have stayed in the West with his beautiful family, but in January 2021 he chose to return to Russia to directly lead the fight against President Putin. He knew what would happen to him once he landed. He will be sent to prison on trumped-up charges. And he was. Yet he was willing to sacrifice himself because he calculated that he could be a more effective defender of freedom within Russia than outside it.
Some Ukrainians have criticized Navalny for flirting with Russian right-wing elements and espousing Russian nationalism. But while Navalny did not condemn Putin’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, a move that was widespread in Russia, he was adamantly opposed to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. . Last year, he called for Ukraine to return to its internationally recognized 1991 borders, which would mean the return of Crimea.
Even as Navalny was imprisoned, his allies continued to expose Putin’s astonishing corruption, including the dictator’s $1.3 billion palace construction. A video about Putin’s palace quickly reached his more than 93 million views on YouTube. One can only imagine President Putin’s outrage. Mr. Navalny’s sentence continued to lengthen, and his incarceration conditions worsened. As my Post colleague Robin Dixon points out, “Mr. Navalny was repeatedly kept in harsh conditions in solitary confinement cells, where he was confined 27 times for a total of more than 300 days. , due to minor infractions such as forgetting to fasten the top button.
Navalny was sent to a former prison camp north of the Arctic Circle in December, where he died on Friday. He thus joins a long list of martyrs of Russian democracy murdered by Putin’s abhorrent regime, including Anna Politkovskaya, Sergei Magnitsky, and Boris Nemtsov.
In 2021, President Biden spoke about the impact of Navalny’s death in prison:It would be catastrophic for Russia” No doubt he had further sanctions in mind. However, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Western countries have already reached, or are close to, the maximum level of sanctions against Russia. Russia’s economy has taken a hit but is being kept afloat by oil sales to China, India and Turkey. Without further cooperation from these countries, there is not much more the United States can realistically do on the sanctions front.
But there are two things Western countries can do to get Putin’s attention.
First, it will transfer to Ukraine an estimated $300 billion in frozen Russian assets from Western countries, mostly held in Belgian clearinghouses. The European Union and the G7 recently agreed to remit profits from Russian stock holdings to Ukraine, which could reach $4 billion this year. But it would be far more effective to literally send the entire amount to make it clear to Putin that aggression will not pay.
Second, pass a $60 billion aid package for Ukraine that was just approved by the Senate on a bipartisan vote of 70-29 but remains pending in the House. Avdiivka falls because the defenders run out of ammunition. If it happened elsewhere on the front lines, or if Ukraine ran out of air defense ammunition to protect its cities from Putin’s brutal missile and drone attacks, it would be a tragedy and a catastrophe. Dew.
The only way to avoid defeat for Ukraine is to increase U.S. aid. But House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) is in thrall to former President Donald Trump and his “America First” isolationists and has refused to take the aid bill to a floor vote. Failure to pass the aid bill will result in punishment for Navalny’s killers.
Mr. Navalny’s death may not be a coincidence, nor is it only because Putin is determined to eliminate all opposition ahead of next month’s farcical “elections.” The rise of a pro-Kremlin parliamentary bloc on the American right has given Putin confidence. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the very definition of a “useful idiot,” recently traveled to Russia and gave a boring interview with President Vladimir Putin before becoming a propagandist promoting how life in Russia is better than in the United States. posted a video. To make matters worse, polls show that President Trump, who would win another term if elected today, recently said that he would not protect NATO members who did not pay their non-existent “dues” and that Russia “I encourage people to do that,” he said. Do whatever they want” to the supposed deadbeats.
President Putin feels as if he is winning and therefore can get away with murder. Giving that rapacious dictator a sense of impunity and invincibility is extremely dangerous. But we can still fight back by providing Ukraine with the funds and military equipment it needs to defend itself. Only by defeating Putin’s aggression in Ukraine can we see the emergence of a better and freer Russia, the dream for which Mr. Navalny dedicated his life.