Banning 44-year-old jailed dissident Alexi Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption [FFC] group today, a Moscow court sent a loud message to 78-year-old U.S. President Joe Biden only six days before his Geneva summit with 68-year-old Russian President Vlaimir Putin. Western press is up in arms over the official FFC ban, labeling Navalny’s organization an extremist group, no longer free to operate in the Russian Federation. When Biden meets Putin June 16, he’d better avoid talking about Russia’s internal matters, especially how to deal with known revolutionaries seeking to topple the Russian state. Navalny’s made no bones over his goal of spearheading a national movement to topple Putin and the Kremlin. Western governments and their collaborators in the press could care less about Russian sovereignty, backing any group the promises to topple authoritarian regimes.
When 26-year-old Belarus blogger Roman Protasevich had his Ryanair jet forced down May 24 in Minsk and arrested immediately, the Western press went wild calling it a hijacking. If Juaqim Guzman AKA“El Chapo,” a known drug trafficker and former head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, were forced down and arrested, the Western press would say nothing. But with Protasevich, 66-year-old Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko was accused by the U.S. and European Union [EU] of hijacking the Ryanair flight. Western press dual standards is breathtaking, when you consider that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrat caucus impeached 74-year-old former President Donald Trump with “incitement of insurrection.” Democrats accused Trump of conspiring to create revolution or a coup d’etat in the U.S. Yet the Western press agreed wholeheartedly with the Democrat Party.
So when in comes to Navalny, Biden should steer clear of his arrest, conviction, sentencing and now dismantling of his FFC organization. Putin views any Western support for Navalny as a provocative attack on his 22-year-old reign and the Kremlin. When the Western press encourages figures like Navalny and Protasevich to continue their subversive activities they deliberately put the dissidents in harm’s way. Western press can write whatever it wants, but the backing for dissidents in authoritarian regimes is all lip service. No one in the Western press sacrifices anything while encouraging dissidents to continue their subversive work. When it comes to Trump, the Western press would have him prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. When it comes to revolutionaries like Navalny and Protasevich, they get a pass because they’re engaged in noble political activity.
Six days before Biden meets Putin in Geneva, the U.S. and foreign press pushes the two into a major confrontation, knowing world peace hangs in the balance. “When corruption is the foundation of the government, fighters against corruption are cast as extremists,” Navalny said from prison. “We will not abandon our goals and ideas. It’s our country and we don’t have another one,” encouraging his backers and the foreign press to keep on fighting. Navalny is well-aware that Biden meets Putin in a few days and hopes that he’ll occupy his agenda with Putin. “The Russia people, like all people, have a the right to speak freely, from peaceful associations to common ends, exercise religious freedom, and have their voices heard through free and fair elections,” said State Depart spokesman Ned Price. Days before the summit, Price signals that meeting isn’t likely to go well.
Navalny’s lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov said the recent Moscow ruling was designed to prevent anyone from the FFC group for running for the Russian Duma [parliament]. “This case has been linked to the law that bans all those who are connected with the Foundation for Fighting Corruption from getting elected,” Smirnov said. Can you imagine any group in the U.S.—or any other country for that matter—that preaches the destruction of the federal government for running for office? Western press’ double standard is astonishing, supporting revolution in authoritarian regimes but not so-called democrat ones. Navalny was told not to return to Russia from Germany after recovering from Novichok poisoning by 57-year-old exiled Russian dissident Mikhail Khordorkovsky. Once Russia’s richest man, Khordorkovsky spent eight years in a Siberian prison for dissident activities.
U.S. and foreign press hopes to sabotage Biden’s June 16 summit with Putin, weighed down with extraneous human rights issues. If Biden takes the bait, he’ll find the summit heading south quickly, especially if he brings up Navalny or any other Russian internal affair. Putin wants to focus of climate change, arms control, Iran, North Korea and other hot spots around the globe. If Biden and his 58-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken turn the summit into a Russian human rights indictment, it will wind up like the March 18 Anchorage, Alaska summit with China: A disaster. Biden should not allow his self-destructive progressive base or the press to sabotage a golden opportunity to find common ground with Russia. If he follows his party left flank or the press, he’ll push the world closer to the brink. With U.S.-Russia relations a Cold War lows, it’s time to mend fences and work together.
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