Reporting on jailed 44-year-old Russian dissident Alexi Navalny, the Western press pushed for a demand by Navalny’s 44-year-old wife, Yulia, to release her husband immediately for medical treatment for his bad back. Kremlin officials scoffed at the idea, prompting the Western press to cover what amounts to a non-story, the wife of a jailed dissident telling the Russian criminal justice system to release him for urgent medical care. No one talked about Navalny’s bad back while he recovered in Germany for four months from his alleged Novichok poisoning in Tomsk, Siberia, nor did you hear about Navalny’s back at anytime while in Russian custody waiting for trial. When Navalny returned to Moscow against all sound advice Jan. 14, he was immediately arrested, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced Feb. 2, no one talked about his bad back, now consuming the Western press.
Western press has adopted Navalny as the next best hope for democracy in the Russian Federation. Navalny’s calls himself a anti-corruption critic, pretending he seeks to democratize Russia, after it failed in the early 90s after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Once former Soviet Premiers Mikhail Gorbachev or Boris Yeltsin experimented with democratic reforms, it all blew up when privitization resulted in Russian oligarchs seizing Russia wealth, once Tsar Nicholas II was toppled in the Bolshevik Revolution Nov. 7, 1917. Since the wealth of Tsarist Russia was distributed by the Soviet Union’s first Premier Vladimir Lenin, the promises of Russian communism was to return power to the people, in line with Karl Marx and the communist revolution. When Russian President Vladimr Putin took over in 1999, he recognized that democracy failed in Russia.
American and European journalists hope that Navalny can lead a new democratic revolution in Russia, vanquishing Putin’s 20-year reign of power. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected pleas from the Western press and Navalny’s wife for his release for medical care to treat his ailing back. After his conviction for violating probation, Navalny was transferred to a Moscow jail to quarantine for 14 days before sent to the IK-2 Penal colony in Pokrov, 100 kilometers east of Moscow. At no time in a Moscow jail or in quarantine did Navalny complain about back problems. Peskov denied that Navalyny had been sleep deprived while at IK-2, saying he was in better care than most prisons around the world. “Some of them have been convicted without reason and illegally,” Peskov said, reminding the press that Navalny was convicted in a Moscow court of violation terms of his probation.
What’s sent U.S. and EU-Russian relations in a tailspin has not been the criticism of Putin but the U.S. and EU backing of a modern-day Bolshevik, determined to topple the Russian government. Russian Defense Minister Yulia Shoigu said the U.S. and EU was committing “psychological warfare” on the Russian Federation, seeking to undermine Putin and the Kremlin. Navalny has worked for years with the chief of staff Leonid Volkov to establish a vast clandestine network of insurgents looking to topple Putin’s government. Only recently Volkov admitted to signing up 250,00 on the Internet to engage sometime this spring mass demonstrations around Russia. Putting Navalny on a pedestal has convinced Putin more than ever that the U.S. and EU seek to topple his regime at the earliest possible time. President Joe Biden, 78, didn’t help things calling Putin March 16 a “soulless killer.”
Publishing more stories in the Western press about Navalny hopes to keep pressure on the Kremlin to release him from prison.. Whether admitted to or not, all the pressure from U.S., EU and Western press to release Navalny has caused Putin and the Kremlin to double-down on Navalny. To Putin and the Kremlin Navalny is a revolutionary with the mission of toppling the Russian Federation. Amnesty International [AI] gave a rare X-ray into Navalny, revoking his “prisoner of conscience” status for past racist comments about Chechens. Navalny once called Chechens “cockroaches,” thinking nothing of vilifying the Muslim group, recommending violence to death with them. Yet if you listen to the U.S. or EU press, Navanly’s an angel trying to democratize the Russian Federation. All the clamor in the Western press paints Navalny with a fake democratic narrative.
If the U.S., EU and Western press doesn’t stop its relentless pressure campaign to spring Navalny from jail, he may never come out alive. Whether admitted to or not, the U.S. and EU are not in a position to confront Russia militarily or to continue to seek to remove Putin from office. When the Russian military concluded that the U.S. and EU are practicing “psychological warfare” on the Kremlin, it’s time to back off the outside pressure campaign to spring Navalny from prison. “Russia authorities must give @navalny access to medical care,” tweeted Nabila Massrali, spokesman for EU Policy Chief Josep Borrell. Borrell met with Putin Feb. 2 while Putin expelled three EU diplomats from Germany, Poland and Sweden, over expelling Russian diplomats over meddling in U.S. and EU elections. Given today’s Cold War atmosphere, Navalny remains in a precarious place.
