Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with President Biden and other leaders in Washington this week to press for additional aid for his beleaguered nation, which has been fighting the Russian Army for almost two years. His request is opposed by many members of the Republican Party, who want to pair this aid with a commitment to border security by the Biden administration. This is currently a standoff that is not expected to end well for Zelensky’s request.
This week’s news also included an alarming report that noted Russian dissident Alexei Navalny has apparently been removed from his jail cell and no one – not even his family or lawyers – knows where he is.
I’m thinking of these two stories together because they both reflect what happens to people who oppose Russian president and dictator Vladimir Putin. Republicans in Congress oppose Zelensky in large part because their leader, #PO1135809, continues to live in Putin’s pocket as he plots his return to power after the 2024 Presidential election. Supporting both #PO1135809 and Putin means opposing Zelensky, so that’s their approach.
Navalny’s story is a much darker tale of what happens to people who oppose Putin. #PO1135809 and his congressional minions are aware of this problem as they kiss up to Putin. I decided I needed to review exactly why Navalny poses such a threat to Putin that the Russian autocrat would “disappear” him rather than deal with him. If he can disappear Navalny, could he also disappear #PO1135809 or other Republicans if they didn’t go along? Is that what’s going on here?
To review Navalny’s story, I turned to Wikipedia. Although serious researchers don’t use Wikipedia as a major source of information, it’s adequate for a broad overview of a person or event for my purposes. The article goes on for pages and pages – here’s a link if you want to read it for yourself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Navalny
Here’s the introduction to the article, which then goes into great detail on each element. The introduction will remind you of what’s happened to Navalny over the past 15 years or so. (I’ve inserted the bullet points to make this easier to take in.)
Alexei Anatolievich Navalny; (born 4 June 1976) is a Russian opposition leader, lawyer, and anti-corruption activist.
He has organised anti-government demonstrations and run for office to advocate reforms against corruption in Russia, and against president Vladimir Putin and his government. Navalny was a Russian Opposition Coordination Council member. He is the leader of the Russia of the Future party and founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). He is recognised by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, and was awarded the Sakharov Prize for his work on human rights.
As of 2021, Navalny had more than six million YouTube subscribers; through his social media channels, he and his team have published material about corruption in Russia, organised political demonstrations and promoted his campaigns. In a 2011 radio interview, he described Russia's ruling party, United Russia, as a "party of crooks and thieves", which became a popular epithet Navalny and the FBK have published investigations detailing alleged corruption by high-ranking Russian officials and their associates.
In July 2013, Navalny had received a suspended sentence for embezzlement, but was still allowed to run in the 2013 Moscow mayoral election and came in second, with 27% of the vote, outperforming expectations but losing to incumbent mayor Sergey Sobyanin, a Putin appointee. In December 2014, Navalny received another suspended sentence for embezzlement. Both of his criminal cases were widely considered to be politically motivated and intended to bar him from running in future elections. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) later ruled that the cases violated Navalny's right to a fair trial, but the sentences were never overturned.
In December 2016, Navalny launched his presidential campaign for the 2018 presidential election but was barred by Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC) after registering due to his prior criminal conviction; the Russian Supreme Court subsequently rejected his appeal
In 2017, the documentary He Is Not Dimon to You was released, accusing Dmitry Medvedev, the then prime minister and previous president, of corruption, leading to mass protests. In 2018, Navalny initiated Smart Voting, a tactical voting strategy intended to consolidate the votes of those who oppose United Russia, to the party of seats in elections.
In August 2020, Navalny was hospitalised in serious condition after being poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. He was medically evacuated to Berlin and discharged a month later. Navalny accused Putin of being responsible for his poisoning, and an investigation implicated agents from the Federal Security Service.
In January 2021, Navalny returned to Russia and was immediately detained on accusations of violating parole conditions while he was hospitalised in Germany which were imposed as a result of his 2014 conviction. Following his arrest and the release of the documentary Putin's Palace, which accused Putin of corruption, mass protests were held across Russia.
In February 2021, his suspended sentence was replaced with a prison sentence of over two and half years' detention, and his organisations were later designated as extremist and liquidated, including the FBK.
In March 2022, Navalny was sentenced to an additional nine years in prison after being found guilty of embezzlement and contempt of court in a new trial described as a sham by Amnesty International; his appeal was rejected and in June, he was transferred to a high-security prison.
In August 2023, Navalny was sentenced to an additional 19 years in prison on extremism charges meaning he would be released in December 2038. Navalny commented that his sentence is as long as either his life or the life of the political regime in the country.
In December 2023, Navalny went missing from his current prison and has not had contact with his team since 5 December. His current whereabouts are unknown and his disappearance happened amid the start of the 2024 Russian presidential election season.
On November 30, I wrote about the rise of authoritarianism around the world. The authoritarian wannabe #PO1135809, who noted this week that he “only wants to be a dictator for one day,” always speaks admiringly of authoritarians like Putin, Xi, Kim, Orban, Erdogan, and the like. He admires their strength and their immunity to opposition, and he covets their ability to hold on to power beyond its legal limit. Putin’s apparent “president for life” status is attractive to #PO1135809, and many scholars of authoritarianism have warned that #PO1135809 will not want to concede electoral defeat if he loses in 2024 and will endeavor to use the powers of the presidency to subvert further elections if he wins. The nay-sayers say that the rest of us are being alarmist, that we are victims of “#PO1135809 derangement syndrome.” It’s not alarmist to be alarmed when something alarming is going on.
Ten years ago, they would have claimed that Navalny was a victim of “Putin derangement syndrome.” We can see how that has turned out.
I always get a solid thud in my stomach each time I read about Navalny. There are fine, upright people in the world, yet we are bullied about by people whose desire to suppress and punish is extreme.
I'm sickened by the Republican Party's extremist members to prevent funding to Ukraine. Many Republicans don't seem to care or acknowledge that by helping Ukraine, we are saving our own country for a lot lower cost to us now than when our children are faced with war against Russia. It's a horrible situation and makes me want to scream in frustration.
Where are any of us????