ON NOVALNY’S MURDER: PROF. FREDERICK KRANTZ, CIJR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (EMERITUS)
The death of Alexei Novalny, a great and courageous man reveals the stark viciousness of the Stalinoid Putin regime. It is ironic, and fitting, that this tragic event occurs shortly after the fawning and shameful Tucker Carlson soft-ball “interview” with Putin, which the Russian dictator used to full propagandistic effect. It also came as ignorant and mindless extreme left and right Congressmen, Democratic and Republican, echoing their French and British counterparts in 1938-39 vis-a-vis Czechoslovakia, hold up badly-needed aid to embattled Ukraine.
Novalny had a real constituency, which explains why the regime first exiled and then murdered him, and which has endured despite the Putin regime’s ultimately successful campaign to silence him. It is still there, as resistance to Russia’s costly and so far unsuccessful aggression against Ukraine continues to grow. When the next, and perhaps this time successful, Prigozhin-style coup or popular protest comes along, Alexi Novalny’s legacy may yet assert itself.
We must keep the memory of such remarkable and heroic fighters for freedom and liberty alive. We are duty-bound to support those who, like valiant Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong, already facing over seven years of prison sentences, is about to be tried again under Xi Jinping’s notorious PRC-imposed “National Security Law”, for defending his island’s rule of law (and his religious faith). Such men defend the universal values of individual liberty and freedom of expression with their lives, in political-juridical frameworks far worse than our own: they are models for us all of the moral imperative to resist authoritarianism and tyranny in all its often-vicious, humanly-debasing expressions.
X: Max Seddon, Munich Security Council, Feb. 16, 2024 — Navalny’s wife Yulia at the Munich security conference: “If it’s true, I want Putin, his entourage, Putin’s friends and his government to know they will be held responsible for what they have done to our country, my family, and my husband. And that day will come very soon.”
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How Navalny Changed Russia: Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, Foreign Affairs, Feb. 16, 2024
The Navalny I Knew: John Jurgensen, WSJ, Feb. 16, 2024
Alexei Navalny Lived and Died in Truth: Bari Weiss, The Free Press, Feb. 16, 2024
Alexei Navalny Has No Heirs This the End of Russia’s Opposition?: Ian Garner, Unherd, Feb. 16, 2024
FOR FURTHER REFERENCE
Don’t Give Up on a Better Russia: Aleksei Miniailo, Foreign Affairs, Dec. 28, 2023 — February 24, 2022, was the worst day of my life. When I woke up to news that Russia was invading Ukraine, it felt impossible to believe.
Alexei Navalny Wanted to Make Russia a ‘Normal Country’: Amy Mackinnon, Foreign Policy, Feb. 16, 2024 — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has reportedly died in a penal colony in the Arctic Circle, according to the Russian prison service. Navalny was serving a 19-year prison sentence in the penal colony on a range of charges that were widely regarded to be politically motivated. He was 47 years old.
Will the West Make Putin Regret the Death of Navalny?: Ben Domenech, The Spectator, Feb. 16, 2024 — The death of Alexei Navalny, announced a week after Vladimir Putin’s sit-down interview with Tucker Carlson and reported as senior officials gather for a security summit in Germany, is an expression of the ruthlessness of the Russian authoritarian.
Putin’s Candidate in the US Presidential Election – Biden: Andrei Illarionov, Center for Security Policy, Feb. 16, 2024 — For the first time in his quarter-century in power, Vladimir Putin publicly, directly, and unequivocally indicated his desired winner of the U.S. presidential election.