The West Is Becoming Complicit in Navalny’s Death

All indications are that Alexei Navalny is sitting in his prison cell in Siberia fighting for his life. While US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan finally warned Putin that the US will take action against the Kremlin if its top critic were to die in government custody, the West has been largely silent in the face of a continued Stalinistic purge of political foes.

The US and Europe should be enumerating in full detail for Putin the actions that they will take to isolate Russia economically and politically for the new century if Putin continues down this course.

Right now this is looking too much like the League of Nations and Hitler.

Since liberty champions like Macron, Merkel, Trudeau and Johnson seem to be tending to their COVID-19 crises within their borders, the task of promoting democracy again falls to the US. This is unfortunate because it is Europe that can make it abundantly clear to Russia that it will cut Russian fossil fuels immediately if Navalny’s health continues to deteriorate.

The US is going to need to find a way to go it alone, and since our former self-styled, self-centered dictator is gone, we are probably up to this. If only we have the time.

Note: The author practiced law in Russia in the 1990s for 3 years before Putin rose to power and Russian law became an oxymoron.