Russia Has Killed Alexei Navalny and Barred a Center-Right Anti-War Presidential Candidate

The tyrannical Russia regime of Vladimir Putin has killed Alexei Navalny, the 47 year-old center-right leader for the cause of liberty and representative government in the Russian Federation. The political prisoner and founder of a persecuted political party and an organization that exposed the corruption of the regime had been imprisoned in harsh conditions on various prisons for four years, most recently above the Arctic Circle, as I had posted recently, and denied adequate medical care. The European Court of Human Rights and the leading private international human rights organization had condemned his mistreatment, which caused his death. Poisoned by nerve gas in 2020, Navalny fled to Germany for treatment, and then courageously returned to Russia, whereupon he was immediately arrested. I have often posted how Russia routinely uses radioactive chemicals or a particular kind of nerve gas to poison enemies at home or abroad, including Russians living in exile. As I have posted, journalists, human rights supporters, and opposition leaders are routinely persecuted, beaten or poisoned, murdered, or driven into exile. The judiciary is not independent in Russia, while Putin does not tolerate basic freedoms. The previous liberal leader, Boris Nemtsov, was shot and killed near the Kremlin in 2015. Both Nemtsov and Navalny had opposed the Russian annexation of Crimea. Currently, other opposition leaders, such as Victor Kara-Murza, are imprisoned or in exile. Kara-Murza, who has not been heard from in weeks, suffers a malady from two poisonings in 2015. He is serving a long prison sentence in Siberia for his criticism of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. There was outrage around the world against Putin for Navalny’s death. There were protests in dozens of cities across Russia, the largest in a year and a half since a wave of protests against the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As usual, the Russian dictatorship responded with mass arrests and crackdowns even on the laying of flowers as a memorial. Four hundred Russian protestors were arrested. The protests come days after the Russian dictatorship rejected the appeal of the decision I had posted about by the electoral commission to bar Boris Nadezhdin, a center-right municipal legislator, professor and activist from standing for president against Putin in this year’s elections. Navalny had supported Nadezhdin’s candidacy. Only opposition candidates and parties, such as Communists and ultra-nationalists who do not criticize Putin are permitted to seek election to the presidency. Putin has ruled Russia either as President or Prime Minister for 24 years and his successful effort to repeal a constitutional prohibition on term limits will allow the ex-Soviet intelligence officer to remain in power until 2030. Navalny had urged Russians to vote for anyone but Putin, just as he had urged Russians to vote for any candidate for any office other than those from Putin’s party, which sometimes has been a successful strategy in demonstrating opposition to the dictatorship. Meanwhile, Russia has been advancing militarily in Ukraine while the Trumpist-led United States House of Representatives has continued to delay the funding of defensive aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, while European States have been trying to fill the gap with the vital support of the shipments of arms and munitions.