Driving Russian relations to Cold War lows, the European and Union and United States issued new sanctions over 44-year-old Alexi Navalny’s poisoning and eventual arrest, prosecution and sentencing to two-years-eight-months in a penal colony 62 miles east of Moscow. President Joe Biden, 78, showed that he’s not the leader of the “Free World” joining the madness at the Brussels-based European Union slapping the Russian Federation with new sanctions. Why anyone in the EU or U.S. cares about Navalny is anyone’s guess. Navalny’s no angel, revoking his “prisoner of conscience” status Feb. 24 by Amnesy International for past racist comments about Chechens. Yet Navalny has become a poster-boy against 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Russian Federation, not the EU or U.S. cup-of-tea when it comes to democracy. Well, Navalny is no pro-Democracy advocate.
Whatever happened with Navalny’s Aug. 24 Novichok poisoning in Tomsk, Siberia, it’s an internal Russian matter, not one the EU and U.S. should risk sending Western nations into a new Cold War. When Navalny returned, for some unknown reason, to Russia Jan. 17, he was promptly arrested for violating his probation. Western government should not question Russia’s criminal justice system, anymore than Russia should question Brussels and Washington. Yet after accusing the Russian Federation of meddling in U.S. and EU elections or politics for years, the EU and U.S. sees fit to meddle in Russian affairs. EU and U.S. officials found out the hard way March 1, 2014 when Putin invaded and annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. EU and U.S. officials claim they stand with Ukraine but when Putin marched in the Russian army the transatlantic partnership did nothing.
Only five weeks on the job, Biden can’t stop playing politics, insisting he’d do things differently than 74-year-old former President Donald Trump. Democrats and the press falsely accused Trump for four years of colluding with the Kremlin, both to win the 2016 presidential election and in other unknown matters. Former Obama administration officials conspired with the Department of Justice, CIA, FBI, National Security Agency [NSA], investigating and wiretapping Trump during his four years in office, eventually finding out there was no Russian collusion. But even after 77-year-old Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation cleared Trump of wrongdoing March 23, 2019, Democrats and the U.S. press continued the fake Russian collusion narrative. Biden showed he’s willing to compromise U.S. national security to prove he’s a tough, anti-Kremlin Cold War warrior.
Sanctioning Kremlin officials when it comes to foreign bank accounts could not be more phony, since none of them have foreign bank accounts. “These people don’t make foreign trips anyway and they don’t have the right to open accounts in foreign banks or have any other foreign assets,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. So, with all the fake EU and U.S. toughness, what have they accomplished? Putin now says he’ll find a way to return the favor to U.S. and EU officials. Peskov reminded the EU and U.S. that any sanctions “represents meddling in Russia’s internal affairs,” and are “absolutely unacceptable, inflicting significant damage to the already poor ties,” raising disturbing questions of why the EU and U.S. actions. When it comes to the EU, it’s more mysterious, since the EU buys 40% of its natural gas and 30% of its petroleum from the Russian Federation.
Why Navalny has become the latest totem of a fledgling democracy movement in Russia is anyone’s guess. When Amnesty International revoked Navalny
“prisoner of conscience” status, what more does the U.S. and EU needs to know. He’s no pro-democracy activist, just a garden variety Trotskyite revolutionary looking to topple Putin’s 20-year reign of power. EU officials know that there’s zero stomach in Brussels for any military confrontation with Russia, so why the antagonism? Navalny is tucked away for the next several years in a Russian prison, if he ever gets out. Showing that Brussels and Washington both share equally bad judgment when it comes to Russia, someone on both sides of the Atlantic needs to get a grip. Navalny offers the EU and U.S. nothing in the way of regional or world security, only creating more problems for the transatlantic partnership.
Any EU or U.S. activist that advocated the overthrow of Brussels or Washington would be dealt with harshly. Democrats and the U.S. press wanted Trump prosecuted for “incitement of insurrection,” accusing Trump of sedition in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. If that’s how the U.S. government dealt with a former president, what’s the logic criticizing Putin for dealing with Navalny? Navalny has created a shadow rebellion against the Kremlin, periodically waging violent street demonstrations. Where’s the hypocrisy with the EU and U.S. putting Navalny on a pedestal when he advocates the overthrow of the Russian government? “The principle of reciprocity in relations between states can’t be abandoned,” Peskov said, warning Brussels and Washington that the Kremlin would respond to the latest provocation. There’s no logic or coherency to sanctioning Russia over Navalny.
