U.S. and foreign press are bsessed with the imprisonment of 44-year-old Russian dissident Alexi Navalny. Navalny claims he was poisoned in Tomask, Siberia Aug. 24, 2020, nearly dying, spending four months recovering in Germany before returning to Moscow Jan. 14, facing immediate arrest. Navalny had no known medical problems before entering March 2 the IK-2 penal colony in Pokrov, Russia, some 100 kilometers [62 miles] east of Moscow. Since entering the former gulag, Navalny has complained about a back ailment, demanding his own doctors treat him, despite against prison rules. On March 31, Navalny announced he was going on a hunger strike to protest the prison’s inadequate medical care. While there are thousands of political prisoners around the world, only Navalny gets the daily attention from the Western press, hoping to pressure the Kremlin to release him from his two-year-eight-month sentence.
No other sovereign government has an obsession with any prisoner, including ones deliberately detained for political purposes in Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and many other authoritarian regimes. Yet the media finds itself fixated on Navalny for some unknown reason. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Tony Blinken have flat out demanded his release from Russia prison, driving U.S.-Russian relations to Cold War lows. “We urge Russian authorities to take all necessary actions to ensure safety and health. So long as he is imprisoned, the Russian government is responsible for his health and well-being,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said today at a daily press briefing. Who’s put Navalny as part of a White House briefing is anyone’s guess. Demanding a sovereign government comply with urgent compliance issues for proper treatment in a foreign prison is unprecedented.
Can you imagine if President Vladimir Putin or the Kremlin demanded the release of any prisoners in Guantanamo Bay or at a SuperMax prison in Colorado? White House and State Department officials would promptly tell Putin or the Kremlin to butt out. But beyond whether or not Navalny gets appropriate medical care, why are the U.S. and foreign press obsessed with Navalny? It’s clear that the U.S. and European Union would like to see Putin out of office. Navalny has painted himself as the last best hope for democracy in Russia, commanding heroic attention U.S. and foreign press didn’t report that Amnesty International denied Navalny’s “prisoner of conscience” status Feb. 22 because of his bigoted past statements about Chechens. So far from an angel, Navalny still gets all the foreign press attention now that he’s behind bars, not slated for release for over two-and-a-half years.
Western government have been critical of Putin since March 1, 2014 when he invaded and annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Former President Barack Obama and his Vice President Joe Biden did nothing other than threaten Putin with NATO action. No NATO country was willing to confront the Russian Federation over Putin’s annexation of Crimea. One week before Putin invaded Crimea, a CIA-backed coup toppled the pro-Kremlin Ukraine government of Viktor Yanukovych. Ukraine 43-year-old President Voldymyr Zelensky said that Biden assured him April 2 that if Putin tries to annex Russian enclaves in eastern Ukaine the U.S. would have his back. Whatever that means is anyone’s guess. Zelensky said April 3 that NATO plans to hold joint exercises in Ukraine in the next few months. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded April 4 that would destabilize the region.
When you consider what’s at stake in Ukraine, it’s inexplicable why the U.S. and foreign press seem fixated on Navalny, a longstanding Russian dissident that holds no national security significance to the U.S. Whether Navalny survives his time in a Russian penal colony, it has zero national security significance to the U.S. If you listen to the press, you’d think that West depends on Alexi Navalny. “We stand with like-minded allies and partners in calling for his immediate release as well as and end to the persecution for his supporters,” said Psaki, saying that Navalny’s imprisonment was “politically motivated” and a “gross injustice.” Stating the White House position put Putin and the Russian Federation on a war footing with the U.S. Since Navalny stated openly his intent to topple Putin’s governement, Putin can only conclude the White House shares that common goal.
Biden and Blinken have endangered U.S. national security by letting Psaki state for the record that the U.S. backs Navalny’s goal of getting rid of Putin. No foreign government can dictate to another sovereign state what to do with its criminal justice system. Blinken said the U.S. has sent a “clear signal” to Moscow that using chemical weapons and human rights abuses won’t be tolerated. “Any use of chemical weapons is unacceptable and contravenes international norms,” Blinken wrote, further throwing gasoline on the situation in eastern Ukraine. If Putin gets even a whiff that NATO could intervene in Ukraine, he’ll give Putin the green light to annex Russian-speaking enclaves in the Donbass region and city of Donetsk. Biden and Blinken have adopted Navalny to discredit Putin to the Western alliance. Biden and Blinken will find out quickly NATO wants no confrontation with Russia.
