LOS ANGELES.–President Joe Biden, 81, slapped 71-year-old President Vladimir Putin with 500 new sanctions on the two-year anniversary of the Ukraine War. Citing 47-year-old Russian dissident Alexi Navalny’s death in am Arctic Russian gulag, Biden blamed his death on Putin, despite Russian authorities saying he died of natural causes. Russian authorities returned Navalny’s corpse to his mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, after pleas with prison authorities since her son’s Feb. 16 death, allegedly he collapsed unconscious after a routine walk. Biden blamed Putin specifically for Navalny’s death, prompting his new sanctions, largely symbolic since applying the most punitive sanctions in U.S. history two years ago. Biden’s past sanctions drove China into an economic, military and strategic alliance with the Kremlin, largely circumventing the effect of Biden’s sanctions.
White House press coverage of Navalny’s death and pressure to transfer the body to his mother has been unprecedented raising question about the U.S. government’s role with Navalny’s dissident activities. Why would a U.S. president give fanfare to a Russian dissident, claiming to run an anti-corruption organization, targeting Putin and promoting insurrection in Russia? Every detail of Navalny’s death has been carried in the U.S. and foreign press, begging the question of exactly who was Alexi Navalny or, more specifically, who funded his subversive activities aimed at spreading revolution in Russia against Putin? When you consider that Biden met in San Francisco Feb. 22 with Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya and her daughter, it shows the cynical way the White House uses his death to pressure Congress to spend $60 billion more on the Ukraine War.
Navalny was allegedly poisoned with Novichok in Siberia in summer 2020, then flown to Germany, where he spent six months recuperating until returning to Moscow in 2021 where he was immediately arrested, jailed and tried on a variety of charges. Navalny was warned by former Russian oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, to stay out of Russia. Khordokovsky has been living in the U.K. and Switzerland since pardoned by Putin and exiled Dec. 20, 2013. Navalny knew that returning to Russia would, in effect, end his life, eventually dying in a high security penal colony Feb. 16. U.S. obsession with Navalny indicates that he was most likely a CIA operative, paid directly or laundered through any number of U.S. or foreign Non-Governmental Organizations [NGOs]. Biden should not be celebrating the death of any random Russian prisoner.
All the drama covered by the U.S. press over the Navalny’s body returned to his mother leaves the impression that he was a U.S. citizen or had special ties to the country. Meeting with Navalny’s widow and daughter suggests that Biden could use her at the upcoming State-of-the-Union speech to highlight, as Biden said, Navalny’s “courage.” But what exactly was Biden referring to about Navalny’s “courage?” Was Navalny courageous because he worked to expose Putin’s alleged corruption or tried foment revolution in Russia? Russian authorities were reluctant to release Navalny’s body, fearing it would be paraded in Russia to agitate anti-Kremlin protests. What Lyudilla or Yulia plan to do with Navalny’s body is anyone’s guess. Both could try to smuggle the corpse out of Russia for an autopsy in a Western country. If that’s not possible, they could hold a public funeral.
Russian authorities grossly overestimate Navalny’s influence in Russia, something his public relations team pandered to in the West. Navalny’s PR team and attorney’s kept the Western press fully apprised of Navalny’s treatment in Russia since his arrest in 2021. “No true Christian could ever do what Putin is no doing with the body of Alexi.,” said Lyudimila, Navalny’s mother. “What will you do with his corpse? How low will you sink to mock the man you murdered,” accusing Putin or ordering Navalny’s death. Holding up a sign “Putin is Navalny’s murderer! I demand that the body be returned!” said signs by Aida Nuryeva from the city of Ufa in the Ural mountains. However controlled Russian state media, the word certainly spread across Russia to remote places. “Absolutely unfounded, insolent accusations about the head of the Russian state,” said Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
All the media hubbub over Navalny’s death in the West indicates that Putin was probably a paid CIA operative, used to sponsor revolution in Russia. Navalny proved that he was not fully in charge of his faculties, returning to Moscow in 2021 after recovering for six months in Germany over his poisoning episode. If Navalny cared about his wife and family, why would they let his return to Moscow to end his life? Returning the body to Lyudimila, Russian authorities are convinced there’s nothing in the corpse that will give away anything other than death by natural causes. While in custody since 2021, Navalny’s attorneys and PR people said he suffered from any number of potentially life-threatening ailments. Biden’s reckless accusations against Putin for murdering Navalny only make a bad situation worse for U.S.-Russian relations. Biden thinks it will help him get his $60 billion for Ukraine.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
