Alexei Navalny in Russian prison Image credit X @guyverhofstadt
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, February 17: The death of Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison unleashed a barrage of lament of the US fast losing the global leadership. Russian President Vladimir Putin is now seen to be unafraid to carry out suppression of his critics. Putin is now mocking at the US leadership by playfully taking aims at the geriatric Presidential candidates in Washington.
Several of the videos with messages of Navalny (47) have gone viral on the internet since the news broke of his death yesterday. The Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug yesterday reported that Navalny had died after he “fell ill during a walk”. The principal critic of Putin had previously also been a target of killing, and he said to have been positioned also. He was serving a 19-year jail term.
On his message in the event he was killed, Navanly had replied “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to be inactive”. He was interviewed for a documentary that was critically acclaimed. The western commentators are now revisiting his message to come hard on the US-led western bloc being half-hearted in countering Putin.
Former American ambassador in Moscow Michael McFaul on a message on the social media platform X said that the “free world is sitting on €360 billion of Putin’s money parked in their bank accounts. It would be a crime to give this money back to this killer in Moscow. So, give this money to Ukraine. Now. You will feel good in doing so.”
Former US Congress Speaker Nancy Pelosi too underlined in her message, saying: “Now more than ever, the U.S. and our NATO and European partners are unified against Russia’s barbarism and tyranny.”
Anne Applebaum wrote in The Atlantic to dwell upon on reasons why Navalny could have been killed. She argued that a two-hour-long video posted by Navalny on the luxurious $1.3 billion palace of the Russian President to expose corruption in the highest office in Moscow had instantly connected with the Russian people.
The people in Russia are seen to be spontaneously expressing their dismay at the death of Navalny despite the police reportedly making arrests. The US Vice President Kamala Harris has said that Russia would be held responsible for the death of Navalny.
But the diplomatic commentators underline that the US, Germany, the UK, and France have been wayward in dealing with Putin, and also the dictators around the world. The US President, Joe Biden, is seen to have been distracted in dealing with the affairs of Ukraine while Washington is stuck in the Middle East.
The US is seen to be sweating out to persuade the Emir of Qatar to buy the release of the American and Israeli hostages held by the Hamas. The US is also seen to be bending before China to douse the firepower of the Yemen-based Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
The CNN in a report had stated that Biden had told Putin in a meeting in Geneva in 2021 that the “consequences of the killing of Navalny in prison will be devastating for Russia”. Now that Navalny has actually died, Biden’s bid to stake claims on the political heft with “autocracy versus democracy” faces serious questions ahead of the Presidential elections.
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