Telling the White House Press corps that 44-year-old Russian dissident Alexi Navalny’s incarceration in a penal colony was “politically motivated and a gross injustice,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has destroyed what’s left of diplomacy with the Russian Federation. President Joe Biden, 78, didn’t help matters calling 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin a “soulless killer” March 16, then somehow expecting him to cooperated on Ukraine. How much madness in U.S. foreign policy does it get when a U.S. president accuses a foreign leader of meddling in U.S. elections and democracy, whey he’s done far worse? Biden and 58-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken demanded Feb. 2 that Putin release Navalny from prison. Can a sovereign leader meddle in another country more than that? Biden has destroyed any pretense of civility with the Russian Federation.
Biden thinks he’s leading the Free World joining the European Union March 2 in slapping the Kremlin with sanctions. No one in the EU or NATO wants to confront the Russian army on the Ukrainian battlefield. Biden’s kidding himself thinking that his belligerent rhetoric is shared by the EU leaders. While Germany and France have sympathy for Navalny, they’re not willing to start a war in Ukraine because of complaints by 43-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Biden and former President Barack Obama found out the hard way March 1, 2014 when Putin invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula. Zelensky said Biden has his back but the proof is in the pudding, the Ukraine has not been invited by Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to join NATO with good reason. Seven years have passed since Putin annexed Crimea, yet Stoltenberg has made no offer to Ukraine.
NATO, representing a joint military alliance of primarily EU countries, does not want a conflagration in Eastern Europe. Unlike the U.S. where the media stirs the pot pushing Biden to confront Putin, the EU foreign policy experts understand the frustration of Russian-speaking enclaves in Eastern Ukraine. They know that Zelensky and his pro-Western government have failed the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, leading pro-Russian separatists to rejoin the Russian Federation. Before Ukraine’s independence in 1991, residents of Donbass received Russian pensions and aid. Kiev has done little for the Russian-speaking enclaves in Donbass. Why should the EU step into Ukraine’s internal problems, with Zelensky securing what look like commitment from Biden to defend his borders in the event Donbass wants out? Why should the U.S. or EU allow Navalny sabotage Ukraine?
U.S., EU and their media acolytes in the press have sabotaged Navalny’s survival in a brutal Russian penal colony. When Biden and Blinken call for Navalny’s released, it only makes matters worse. Do you really think Biden thinks enough of Navalny to send U.S. troops to Moscow? It sounds insane by that exact narrative presented by the U.S. and EU press. Poor Navalny, a poor Russian dissident persecuted by Putin, because he presents a threat to the Kremlin’s status quo. Navalny runs a clandestine organization designed to topple Putin’s government. What Western power would tolerate any revolutionary calling for the overthrow of a sovereign government? U.S. officials accused former President Donald Trump of “incitement of insurrection” for delivering a speech. Democrats and the U.S. press treated Trump worse than Putin treats Navalny now rotting in a Russian penal colony.
If Russia’s criminal justice system were really so brutal, how is it that Navalny’s attorneys visit him daily and post messages to his Facebook account? Many countries around the globe are far more repressive than Russia would never give access to lawyers inside the criminal justice system. When Navalny decided to launch a hunger strike March 31, the media has covered the story obsessively, accusing the Kremlin to trying to kill the Russian dissident. No one in the press can tell you why Navalny returned to Moscow Jan. 14 after recuperating in Germany from a suspected Novichok poisoning by the FSB in Tomask, Siberia. Whatever Biden or the media’s fascination with Navalny, it’s not worth starting WW III. Putin can only conclude that the U.S. and EU’s obsession with Navalny is related to his fantasy of toppling the Kremlin. Putin knows the Western Alliance wants him out.
Biden and Blinken overplayed their hand with Navalny, now face a potential disaster in Ukraine. If both had taken a more neutral stance on Navalny, Putin might have shown more cooperation in Ukraine. When it comes to Russian enclaves in Donbass, Zelesnky’s Kiev government has let the region suffer, like every other Ukrainian government since they got their independence in 1991. Whatever medical problems Navalny develops in a Russian penal colony, he’s not worth going to war in Ukraine, if Zelesnky convinces Stoltenberg to join NATO. Judging by the last seven years, Ukraine hasn’t convinced the Western Alliance to fight its battles with the Russian Federation. Biden and Blinken must stop playing the media’s games with Navalny and get back to responsible diplomacy. About 450 million in the EU and another 330 million in the U.S. deserve better statesmanship.
