Today is the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It has also been eight days since the death of Russian opposition figure Aleksei Navalny.
Today, too, Mr. Navalny's spokeswoman announced, in an online statement, that Mr. Navalny's body had--finally--been released to the custody of his mother.
Yesterday, President Biden announced some 500 sanctions against Russia, as a result of Mr. Navalny's death, and Russia's continuing war against Ukraine. Those sanctioned, The Washington Post noted, included Russian individuals, companies, "and firms in other countries that supply Russia's military and industrial production, according to a Treasury Department spokeswoman."
Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said there will also be sanctions concerning Russia's human rights abuses, within the country, and without. One hopes the sanctions will have an effect.
And yet: in the United States, the Republican-led House continues to delay--recklessly--sending crucial aid to Ukraine.
Gamesmanship is not leadership. Fealty to Donald Trump--who is besotted with Putin--is not leadership. The stakes, concerning Ukraine, are incalculably high, worldwide, and many in the House GOP don't seem to care.
The world--teetering on its axis, while House Republicans are dormant.
Putin is strengthened by this; America's moral leadership is deeply diminished.
And, to speak of Mr. Navalny: he was an immensely brave man.
The day before his February 16th death, he made a court appearance, video from which has aired on television, and can be seen online.
In the courtroom--or, in the enclosure within the courtroom--he was smiling, laughing, making jokes to the judge.
The judge had imposed "a stream of fines" against Mr. Navalny, an online Russia-oriented independent news site noted (a site blocked in Russia; the publication is now based outside of the country). Mr. Navalny said the following, at the court hearing (I am using the translation not from the above publication, but from the CBS News video, below):
"Your honor, I am waiting. I will send you my personal account number, so that you can use your huge federal judge's salary to fuel my personal account." He added: "Because I am running out of money, and thanks to your decisions, it will run out even faster. So send it over."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUwOYeei5MU
Mr. Navalny's cheerful-appearing demeanor, the day before he died, was, on its own, evidence of his tremendous fortitude, and his heroism.
He had not, his manner proclaimed, been defeated--either from the terrible (and freezing) conditions of the Russian Arctic penal colony to which he had been sent in December, or from the punishing circumstances at the prison where he had been previously held since 2021. During his imprisonment, he spent hundreds of days in solitary confinement.
Mr. Navalny's death--whether due to the harsh conditions of his incarceration (conditions imposed, certainly, by Vladimir Putin), or because of a Putin-ordered assassination--is a tragedy of great magnitude: for the citizens of Russia, for his many supporters, and, of course, for Mr. Navalny's courageous family. It is also a considerable tragedy for those seeking freedom across the world.
On February 16th, the day his death was reported, Anne Applebaum wrote the following in The Atlantic, online:
The enormous contrast between Navalny’s civic courage and the corruption of Putin’s regime will remain. Putin is fighting a bloody, lawless, unnecessary war, in which hundreds of thousands of ordinary Russians have been killed or wounded, for no reason other than to serve his own egotistical vision. He is running a cowardly, micromanaged reelection campaign, one in which all real opponents are eliminated and the only candidate who gets airtime is himself. Instead of facing real questions or challenges, he meets tame propagandists such as Tucker Carlson, to whom he offers nothing more than lengthy, circular, and completely false versions of history.
Even behind bars Navalny was a real threat to Putin, because he was living proof that courage is possible, that truth exists, that Russia could be a different kind of country. For a dictator who survives thanks to lies and violence, that kind of challenge was intolerable. Now Putin will be forced to fight against Navalny’s memory, and that is a battle he will never win.
On February 20th, Nadya Tolokonnikova--one of the founders of the Russian music/protest/performance art group Pussy Riot, and who was a friend of Mr. Navalny's--published an op-ed essay in The New York Times. She wrote the following:
People say Mr. Putin feared Aleksei. But I think the reason he wanted to get rid of Aleksei was another emotion — a darker, more sinister one. It was envy. People loved Aleksei. With his jokes, irony, superhero-like fearlessness and love for life, he led with charisma. People followed Aleksei because he was the kind of person you wanted to be friends with. People follow Mr. Putin because they fear him, but people followed Aleksei because they loved him. Mr. Putin clearly envied this appeal. No amount of money in the world can buy love; no amount of missiles and tanks can conquer people’s hearts.
