Outgoing 67-year-old German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose term ends Sept. 26, feels bold enough to lecture 68-ueyear-old Russian President Vladimir Putin about release 44-year-old Russian dissident Alexi Navalny from his two-and-a-half-year prison sentence. Merkel joins a chorus of voice from the Western alliance demanding that Putin release Navaly from his stint in a Russian penal colony, formerly a gulag. “I demanded from the Russian President that he free Navalny,” Merkel told reporters, after speaking with Putin by phone. Putin knows all about his Western partners, all of whom want Navalny back on the streets preaching the overthrow of Putin’s government. Merkel’s statement was a hollow PR move, since she knows Putin would likely extend Navalny’s sentence rather that release him from prison. Merkel talks out of both sides of her mouth about the Russian Federation.
Merkel worked closely with Putin over the last five years completing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, ferrying natural gas from Russia to Germany over the objections of NATO and the United States. Merkel could care less about Navalny, knowing her strong business ties with Moscow. Today marks the date Navalny, while traveling in Siberia, was allegedly poisoned in Tomsk, Siberia with Soviet-era never agent Novichok, where he suddenly fell ill and was airlifted to Berlin for emergency medical treatment. Navalny spent months recovering in Germany, primarily in Bavaria, warned not to return to Russia or face immediate arrest. Navalny brushed off all advice, returning to Moscow Jan. 14, 2021, where he was promptly arrested, tried on a probation violation, then sentenced to two-years-tem-months in a Russian penal colony. Navalny’s PR team kept him in the news for months.
Western officials like Merkel pretend that Navalny was some innocent pro-democracy activist, not a dangerous dissident running a clandestine organization designed to overthrow the Russian government. No Western power would tolerate any dissident threatening to overthrow a sovereign government. Merkel knows all about Navalny’s efforts to overthrow Putin’s government yet pretends he’s simply promoting democracy in the Russian Federation. Navalny’s chief of staff, Leonid Volkov, has given a blow-by-blow report of Navalny’s incarceration since reporting Feb. 28, 2021 to the penal colony. Navalny went on a hunger strike and almost died from dehydration, prompting emergency medical treatment. Since entering the penal colony, there hasn’t been a day that’s gone by without some report on Navanly’s medical condition. Merkel thinks demanding Navalny’s release will get anywhere.
Putin sees clearly what the Western alliance is up to, trying stir up revolution in the Russian Federation. Merkel sees any suppression of free speech as a brutal government crackdown. Yet when it came to Jan. 6 Capitol Hill protesters, they’ve been cracking down, prosecuting and dishing out long prison sentences ever since But when it comes to Navalny, it’s an illegal crackdown. House Democrats impeached former President Donald Trump for “incitement of insurrection,” something the U.S. Senate rejected Feb. 13, 2020. Merkel knows that lecturing Putin usually backfires, especially when it comes to known dissident threatening to overthrow the Russian state. Merkel knows that when she finishes her term, she will have served as Chancellor since Nov. 22, 2005. Always a staunch advocate of the European Union, Merkel’s been a powerful voice for inclusion in German society.
After nearly 16 years as chancellor, Merkel has nothing to lose trying impose her agenda on Putin. Whether admitted to or not, Putin’s stronger than ever, with most Russians trusting his leadership, far more than any other leader. When it comes to Navalny, most Russians could care less about his incarceration, knowing that dissidents, in any country, are dealt with harshly, especially Trump in the U.N. No one was accused more of treason or inciting an insurrection more than former President Trump. Democrats never accepted his presidency in 2016, proceeding with a FBI counterintelligence investigation, accusing him of colluding with the Kremlin. When that was proven false by 76-year-old former Special Counsel Robert Mueller March 23, 2019, Democrats, like House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, continue to accuse Trump of Russian collusion.
Merkel grandstanded with Putin, demanding that he be released from prison. Before Angela leaves the world stage, she wanted to set the record straight when it cam to Navalny’s dissident status. Angela knows that all that counts is the Nord Stream 2 pipeline nearing completings, something supplying Germany natural gas for years to come. No one will remember much about Navalny other than the fact that he got a lot of publicity in the West for challenging Putin. Navalny brough his own misery on himself when returned to Russia against all advice, knowing he was so popular in the Western press that Putin would leave him along. Whatever the conventional wisdom in the Western alliance, Putin saw Navalny as a dangerous enemy, seeking to toss him out of office. Navalny would have been much better off campaigning against Putin as a free citizen out Russia.
