Today Russian news outlets reported the death in captivity of Alexei Navalny. His crime? Opposing Vladimir Putin and supporting free elections. What impact does his death have on us here in America? Plenty. Beside the undisputable poetic truth that ‘no man is an island’ and ‘the death of one diminishes us all,’ there are frightening parallels between the rapidly shrinking political freedoms in Russia and in our own land. Navalny’s rhetorical question (and oh, he was a ‘shutnik,’ a joker!), “So why does Putin hate free elections?” might as well be asked here. Consider Alexei’s answer: “Because he might lose!!” A first reaction to the sad news for Navalny’s wife and daughter, for Russia, and for all of us, was to project a revolt in Russia that would result in what Navalny patiently and peacefully prophesied – free elections and an end of centralized tyranny in post-KGB (they call it the FSB today) Russia. And then came the realization that the for-profit, (BIG profit!) moguls who swept up Russian industries and resources in the early ‘90’s when communism “fell” (teetered then morphed may be more apt), have co-opted all the organs of state security, bureaucracy, censorship, and spin control of the USSR and adapted it to their new and fantastically profitable ends. Friends, here are some questions to build a thought-bridge between Russia and America today: 1. Do we have free and open elections in America, where one-citizen, one-vote is the rule, and the boundaries of our US Constitution and state election laws are respected? 2. Do people of all political convictions have the freedom to assemble and to peacefully demonstrate to express those convictions? 3. Have you seen evidence of police state tactics being used in America, such as SWAT teams’ arrests of cabinet members and advisors of political opponents of the current regime? 4. Does the “unison chant” of the “alphabet” media outlets, where they cheer for their likeminded political figures bending the law to their own benefit, while “piling on” as a team against the opposition party, sound like freedom of the press to you? Or state propaganda? 5. Do we have political prisoners held for years without bail here in America? 6. Final question, how is it in Ronald Reagan’s America, his “city on a hill today?
In that punishment cell in Siberia, north of the arctic circle, an eloquent and brave Russian is now free of persecution, pain, and isolation. May God have mercy on his family. May his work continue and prosper – even to those in the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Is this the guy who tried to get $20-million dollars a year to fund a “color revolution” in Russia?
bttt
Oh boo-fkn-hoo.
Someone kill him again - I love watching Zeepers shed their bish-tears.
Never heard of him. Regardless I find it unremarkable that an old man held many years in jail finally dies in jail. While foul play is always possible it is also possible that he succumbed to disease or a bad heart or just reached his end of life.
Who?
Biden has been responsible for the incarceration of at least 1300 American patriots for political reasons, and is still hunting more down. Joe’s running his own Dachau prison in Washington, D.C. One prosecuted individual committed suicide at home while awaiting his fate. He chose to end it all, instead of being jerked around by the government for months. Four Capitol Hill police officers on duty that day committed suicide. Three within weeks, one within 6 months. Sorry to hear about Navalny, but we’ve got our own problems right here.
Sad, inexcusable, and disproportional. Navalny had as much of a chance of shaking up the system as Cornel West has of becoming POTUS.
On the other hand, Navalny’s death is already being canceled out by those of innocent, uncharged J6 detainees in our own prisons.
Compare Navalny’s fate with that of a known mass murderer like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, architect of 9-11.
KSM is living better now in a U.S. jail than he ever did on the run, and probably will outlive many of the firefighters who are dropping dead of cancer from the toxic fumes.
Coddling terrorists while persecuting for free speech on one side (the West), vs. persecuting or assassinating political prisoners on the other. All ridiculously irrational.
Beam us up, Scotty. There is no intelligent life on this planet.
Bad day for Deep State. There goes its hopes for a color revolution in Russia. Too bad, so sad.
That’s nice. How are the j 6 gulag prisoners doing?
Ashli Babbitt was unavailable for comment.