The death of Alexey Navalny- Evil triumphs, and feckless Republicans will do nothing
They're too busy carrying Vladimir Putin's water and destroying Ukraine
And what constitutes evil, real evil, is the taking of a single human life. Whether a man would die tomorrow or the day after or eventually... it doesn't matter. Because if God does not exist, then life... every second of it... Is all we have.
Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire
We are what we are. Nothing more, nothing less. There is good and evil among every kind of people. It's the evil among us who rule now.
Anne Bishop, Daughter of the Blood
Russian President Vladimir Putin finally achieved what he’s wanted all along in silencing Alexey Navalny's voice. While the world waits, almost certainly in vain, for the questions surrounding Navalny’s death to be answered, there’s another question: Who will hold Putin and his regime accountable?
Once upon a time, former President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an “Evil Empire.” At the time, Reagan was roundly ridiculed for reducing the USSR to the status of a cartoon villain. He attempted to create the perception that America was the “Good” in the Cold War battle of “Good vs. Evil” and was vilified for his seemingly childish over-simplication.
America, of course, stood for everything the USSR didn’t- freedom, opportunity, creativity, and the chance to be who you are without the oppressive hand of the state holding you down. But it wasn’t always the “Good” that Reagan believed it to be. The American government had its own share of anti-democratic adventures and blood on its hands.
When the Soviet Union finally died from its almost infathomable corruption and sclerotic inefficiency, Americans and their government saw it as the triumph of good over evil. However, they didn’t realize that the said “triumph” was to be short-lived. They didn’t understand that there were still forces in the rump Russia determined to show the world that the Russian bear still had claws, still demanded respect, and was still to be feared.
By the time Vladimir Putin assumed power from the oligarchs who thought they could control him, the Russian President didn’t have to go far to find an English-speaking mouthpiece willing to transmit his propaganda. There are Americans still irresponsible enough to be willing to serve as Vladimir Putin’s de facto international propaganda agency:
Tucker Carlson managed a 127-minute interview with Putin this month without even asking a single question about Navalny. It was such a softball interview that Putin professed exasperation at the deference and said he wished he’d been asked sharper questions.
Carlson even embarked on what seemed a promotional tour of Putin’s Russia, praising Moscow. “It is so much nicer than any city in my country,” he said. “It is so much cleaner and safer and prettier, aesthetically, its architecture, its food, its service, than any city in the United States.”
And the Moscow subway? “There’s no graffiti. There’s no filth. There are no foul smells,” Carlson said. “There are no bums or drug addicts or rapists or people waiting to push you onto the train tracks and kill you. No, it’s perfectly clean and orderly.”
And grocery shopping? It’s a bargain! Carlson goes shopping in Moscow, spends less money than he expects and says the experience radicalized him against America’s leaders. He doesn’t seem to understand that Russians spend four times as much of their income on food as Americans, and that prices are cheap because Russia is a poor country with a weak currency.
While Carlson was playing up the bright side of Russia’s “Worker’s Paradise,” the power of the state was being brought to being against a Russian citizen with the courage to tell the truth to the world.
Alexey Navalny was one of the few brave enough to speak out against Putin’s kleptocracy from within Russia. It was just a matter of time before the state invented a crime to charge him with and imprison him for. Once he was in Russia’s prison system, the chances of him emerging alive were somewhere between slim and none. The smart money was on “none.”
Friday morning in Russia, in a godforsaken prison camp in Kharp, an wide spot in a nameless road near the Arctic Circle, “none” cashed in its chips. Navalny allegedly went for a walk, felt ill, and didn’t respond to whatever emergency treatment was provided by prison authorities.
Getting a straight story from Russian authorities will be next to impossible, as will doing any independent investigation of Navalny’s demise. The first responsibility of Putin’s government will be to cover up any evidence of potential malfeasance and/or misconduct and then deny, deny, deny. The outside world will almost certainly never know precisely why Alexey Navalny died.
President Biden…blamed Vladimir Putin for Alexei Navalny's death and condemned Donald Trump and Republicans opposed to Ukraine aid.
In brief remarks, Biden used Navalny's reported death to call on Republicans to do more to aid Ukraine during its war with Russia, warning them that "history is watching" - a common refrain from the US President.
"The failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten," he said. "We have to help, now."
Additionally, Biden also directly took aim at his likely rival in the November 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump, who recently drew the ire of Democrats and US Nato allies by saying that he would "encourage Russia to attack any Nato member that fails to pay its bills as part of the Western military alliance".
"This is an outrageous thing for a president to say," Biden said. "I can't fathom."
Again, Trump's perceived fondness for Putin has become a common talking point among the former president's detractors.
It’s unlikely that the West will be able to mount a response that will impact Putin or Russia as a whole. Most of the available sanction options have already been used in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine. Much of Europe is already transitioning away from Russian gas supplies, and most Western businesses have already pulled out of the Russian market. There aren’t many economic and/or political sanctions available to Western governments that would have a noticeable impact on Vladimir Putin.
Russia’s economy is much smaller and poorer than it was in early 2022, but it’s adapted and Putin can claim that it has show commendable strength and resilience. Whether it has or not is difficult to know, but that’s the official line, and the truth a matter of interpretation.
At this point, words are about all that remain available to the West. They will have little impact on Putin, and the Russian President knows it. This is primarily because too many feckless American politicians and media personalities on the Far-Right lack the courage or foresight to do anything but kiss Vladimir Putin’s backside:
Vladimir Putin’s Russia has just become even more bleak and soulless with the reported death in an Arctic prison of Aleksei Navalny, the 47-year-old dissident who showed immense bravery and humor as he tried to bring democracy to his homeland.
Navalny’s strength, resilience and courage contrast with the fecklessness of so many Americans dealing with Putin. From Donald Trump to Tucker Carlson, a remarkable number of American leaders and their mouthpieces roll over before the Russian president.
It would be nice to be able to harbor at least some hope that Navalny’s courage would fortify Americans and Europeans to push back against Vladimir Putin. The reality is that Navalny’s untimely passing will probably do little to budge the needle.
I’m not a pessimist on this count. I’m a realis. The reality is that while much of Putin’s empire, including much of his military, is a rotting carcass, his nuclear arsenal is enough of an unknown quantity to remain a scary monster under the West’s bed.
While people outside Russia can and will protest in support of Alexey Navalny and against Putin, it will have zero practical impact on Russia or its President. The West, at this point, has virtually no leverage available to use against Russia. Short of going to war, which no one is advocating for, because it would mean World War III, meaningful action will be hard to come by.
Despite its inept field-grade leadership, often obsolete equipment, and meat-grinder tactics, Russia’s military has one thing that must be taken seriously- the world’s second-largest nuclear arsenal. Vladimir Putin has made it clear that he won’t be afraid to use it if the West threatens Russia. Since no one will underestimate Putin on this count, his words must be taken at face value.
There will be many words, protests, and expressions of sorrow on social media for Navalny, but the sad truth is that he was never destined to walk out of prison a free man. Once he became the property of the Russian prison system, it was just a matter of time until that system claimed and killed him. Vladimir Putin never intended for him to live, merely for him to have the illusion of hope that he’d someday see freedom.
Russia had failed to kill Navalny once before when he was a free man; it defies logic to think that they wouldn’t somehow find a way to kill him while he was a prisoner of the country’s penal system. The only question was when, where, and how it would happen.
Now that Putin has been relieved of a primary irritant, the question becomes whether or not the state will allow Navalny’s family to have his body so that they can bury it…and perhaps have an autopsy done.
(Translation: Baby, everything is like in a song with you: between us there are cities, the take-off lights of airfields, blue snowstorms and thousands of kilometers. But I feel that you are near every second, and I love you more and more.)
World leaders and prominent figures from around the world will have a lot to say, primarily to honor Alexey Navalny. . As mentioned earlier, there’s not much in the way of concrete action that can be taken against Russia. Most Western governments leveled what sanctions they were willing to against Russia in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine. What more they’d be willing to do know remains to be seen.
The United Nations is a paper tiger, virtually powerless to take meaningful action against Russia. As for other international bodies or nations, it seems unlikely that they’d impose sanctions that would require significant sacrifices on their part, in addition to whatever economic impact it might have on Russia.
Alexey Navalny, as flawed as he was, still towers over the many feckless Americans- House Speaker Mike Johnson, Tucker Carlson, too many people to count at Fox News Channel, etc., ad nauseam- who lack Navalny’s personal courage and moral conviction.
I’m not saying that I’d expect anyone in the GOP to die for America as Navalny did for Russia- they’re all far too cowardly for that- but I don’t think it’s too much to hope that they’d prioritize America over Russia. Seeing them carrying Vladimir Putin’s water when it comes to the war in Ukraine is sickening.
Then again, these cowards would sell their souls AND sell democracy down the river if they knew it would keep them in power.
Navalny was Russia’s foremost dissident and opposition leader but also emerged as something of a Mandela of our age. Despite being poisoned, imprisoned and repeatedly punished with long bouts of isolation in remote prisons, Navalny stood unbroken. He continued to mock Putin and denounce the invasion of Ukraine.
His wit and refusal to bow to authority made him a Kremlin nightmare. Sent to the gulag, he mischievously attempted to unionize prisoners and guards alike.
As recently as Thursday, he appeared by video in a court hearing and jokingly asked for part of the judge’s salary. “Because I am running out of money, thanks to your decisions,” Navalny explained, referring to fines imposed on him.
No wonder Navalny is reported dead. So many brave Russians — journalists, lawyers, political figures — have died after challenging the authorities. It’s baffling how many Americans have responded in the opposite way, by acting as Putin’s poodles.
In the short term, we’re likely to hear many words- mostly variations of outrage and not much else. The next step would be military action, but no sane leader will want to risk going to war against a Russian leader whose actions are sure to be unpredictable and quite possibly insane.
So, a lot of sound and fury that, in the end, will signify nothing- because Vladimir Putin knows the international community lacks the courage to push back against him in the only way he understands- forcefully.
In Russia, as is true anywhere, the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. For Alexey Navalny, good people will have a lot of wonderful things to say, but will they lead to action?
Not as long as Putin has his finger anywhere near Russia’s nuclear button.
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Alexey Navalny is as heroic a figure in his way in Russia, as MLK is in America. It could well be argued that in he is even more heroic because King for all of his formidable and impressive courage never entered a situation where he knew ahead of time that his freedom would be taken away for years. Navalny, knew when he returned to Russia in 2021 that he would be arrested, found guilty in a rigged trial, and imprisoned for many years, and possibly not ever get out; and this is what has happened. In the annals of history, Navalny's courage will stand the test of time as an example for which to marvel.
Now, some observations about Putin and Russia. I agree that Putin will face no immediate consequences. However, if America returns to funding Ukraine, which we desperately need to, then Ukrainian resistance can defeat his military on the battlefield and contribute to the conditions that will eventually unseat him. This is what happened to Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia in the early 2000's. If Putin's aggression is stalled and repelled by Ukraine, as they were doing, then eventually a similar fate could await Putin. Another observation; I can't prove it, but I seriously doubt that Putin would ever go nuclear against Ukraine. If this were a real possibility, he'd been losing in Ukraine, so why hasn't he already done so? the reason I believe is that he knows that whatever momentary advantage he might gain, he also knows that going nuclear would definitely, not most likely, doom him. He would immediately lose all of the scant support he has from other nations now including most significantly China. He would become the most universally hated person in the world overnight. Putin is a sociopath, but he's not crazy. He knows what would happen from going nuclear and it will stay his hand from it. No, the primary threat to Ukraine, the rules based order, and boon to Putin's regime is the Republican House of Representatives. These people are surely the most traitorous caucus in history since the House Democrats in 1860. They are despicable and if there is any justice they will pay a price for it. I will end with a prediction; watch as the far Left utterly ignores the outrage of Nalvany's death. They will not speak out against it, they will not publish a statement against it, and they for sure will not organize protests for it. The reason for this is as simple as it is bracing; they hate the West, they hate America, and therefore they must be indifferent to the crimes of the foes of America; that's not when they're actively cheering for them. Bottom line; the extremism here in America isn't isolated on the Right, our far Left flank rivals them, only they do not have the political heft to present the same threat; at least not yet, and we need to keep it that way.