Russian dissident Alexi Navalny, serving two-year-10-months in a top security Russian prison just had his sentence extended to nine years over new allegations that he embezzled funds from his non-profit anti-corruption organization. Navalny’s top aide, exiled in London, said that Navalny’s like was in jeopardy, the same message since Navalny was arrested Aug. 25, 2021, after returning to Moscow, recovering from Novichok poisoning in Germany for several months. Navalny’s top aid Vladimir Ashurkov said Navalny’s life was in danger, with nothing preventing Russia’s FSB from finishing off in prison. “There is nothing that could stop Russian security services from assassinating a person anywhere in the world, let alone in a Russian prison, which is a brutal place,” said Ashurkov. President Joe Biden, 79, demanded Jan. 26, 2021 that Putin release Navalny from prison

Ashurkov claims that Navalny was part of the purge since the Ukraine War, handing harsh sentences to anyone seen as an opposition figure. “A puppet of somebody sitting in the Kremlin,” said Ashurkov, saying Navalny was another victim of Putin’s kangaroo courts. Navalny made no bones of his desire to see corrupt Russian politicians like Putin ousted from the office. It was the same lesson learned by former Yukos oil oligarch Mikhail Khordorkovsky, who, from exile in London, denounced Putin’s Ukraine War. Khodorkovsky found out the hard way challenging Putin, winding up serving 10 years in a Siberian prison. Khodorkovsky was eventually pardoned by Putin Dec. 20, 2013 on the condition that he live in exile. Unlike Navalny, Khoordorkovsky never returned to Russia again, knowing he’d be immediately arrested. Navalny defied all advice, returning to Moscow.

Ashurkov, like Navalny, has been plotting to oust Putin for years, favorites among the anti-Putin crowd at the White House and in London. Ashurkov, like Navalny, all think Putin’s end is coming soon, something that hasn’t happened. “This war, this aggression, I believe, will speed up the demise of Putin’s regime,” Ashurkov said, the same thing he’s been saying for years. “They don’t need my calling to determine it is in their interest to get rid of the maniac and start working toward a news Russia,” Ashurkov said, repeating the same talking points for years, especially after Navalny’s poisoning and return to Moscow. Whey Navalny returned to Moscow is anyone’s guess, knowing, like Khodorkovsky, he was subject to immediate arrest and incarceration. Western press obsession with Navalny stems from its unrealistic views that democracy will one day prevail in Mother Russia.

When it comes to the Ukraine War, the U.S. and foreign press have adopted Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky, who promised to bring democracy to Ukraine. Zelensky has shamed the Western world, especially the press, for not standing up to Putin, committing troops to Ukraine. Western press can’t have it both ways, telling the world that Ukraine is winning the war with Russia, while, at the same time, saying that major cities and towns are in ruins. Navalyny has 100% backing from the U.S. and Western press all because he promises to get rid of Putin. Like Navalny, now Zelensky promises to punish the Russian Federation for invading his country, saying he won’t surrender one inch of territory. In reality, Zelensky has no control over the war, taking his orders from the White House. No matter how much destruction and carnage in Ukraine, the battle continues.

Western governments and the press continue to obsess over Navalny because he’s a martyr for the cause of brining democracy to Russia. As Ashurkov says, Navalny’s life is in jeopardy but what’s the West going to do about? When it came to Ukraine, you see a mass condemnation of Putin but not one Western democracy is willing to commit one soldier to free Ukraine. If the U.S., European Union [EU] or NATO believed that Putin was the next Adolf Hitler, planning on bulldozing European countries after Ukraine, they’d find a way to stop him. No one really believes that Russia commits genocide in Ukraine or anywhere else. Yet Zelensky has told the world repeatedly that Putin is in fact the next Adolf Hillter, requiring the international community to install a no-fly-zone to shoot down Russian fighter jets. So far, Biden, who’s committed $14 billion to the war, refused to contribute troops or air support.

Putin has been so demonized in the Western press he might as well be the second coming of Adolf Hitler. Yet as the Israeli Knesset determined after Zelensky’s speech March 20, there’s no parallel to the Holocaust, no matter how much Zelensky stretches the truth. Ukraine’s war is a border dispute between otherwise friendly neighbors, where Zelensky decided to accept unlimited amounts of lethal weapons from the U.S. and NATO. When Biden meets in Brussels with NATO foreign ministers, they need to ask him how far he’s willing to push war on the European Continent? Armed with more Russian sanctions, Biden’s close to breaking U.S. relations with Moscow. NATO ministers must ask Biden how far he’s willing to push Putin before he starts WW III on the European Continent. German and the Netherlands have already said they’re not ready to give up Russian oil and natural gas.