Will the West make Putin regret the death of Navalny?

The death of Alexei Navalny, announced a week after Vladimir Putin’s sit-down interview with Tucker Carlson and reported as senior officials gather for a security summit in Germany, is an expression of the ruthlessness of the Russian authoritarian. Add Navalny to the list of foes Putin’s regime has assassinated — the most prominent since Boris Nemtsov was shot to death while crossing a bridge — and know that so long as the current regime is in power, it will continue to assassinate anyone who rises up against it. Whether they die by poison or bullet or walking in a prison yard north of the Arctic Circle, it’s all the same to him.

Navalny’s defiant stand in opposition to the corrupt Putin regime is the definition of courage. He used every tool at his disposal to expose their corruption, their lavish lifestyles and the way they perverted Christian faith to guard against criticism. Perhaps that’s why Putin chose this moment to have him embark on a permanent exit. Putin has no respect for his Western supporters — he views them as lesser men, failed would-be CIA agents, poor interviewers, gullible and subservient. This killing is a message to the West and to the Munich Security Conference, where Navalny’s widow just spoke, that Putin does not fear any consequences for his actions, in any context.

And why shouldn’t he? Carlson, as if in exchange for the access to Putin, embarked on a multi-episode propaganda effort on his new paid platform espousing the beauty and cleanliness of Moscow under the Russian regime. He released videos glorying in the artistry of the Moscow metro — originally constructed intentionally as propaganda for the nation’s communist rulers — with a montage featuring a beautiful mosaic of Vladimir Lenin made by an artist whose home was seized, starved to death and is buried in a mass grave. Carlson chortled at the charm and inexpensiveness of a knock-off Moscow grocery, expressing surprise at the coin-operated grocery cart, having never apparently darkened the threshold of a Lidl or an Aldi here at home. When he pronounced Moscow “so much nicer than any city in my country,” Tucker went Full Duranty — and you never go Full Duranty.

What will be the response from this administration? When asked about the imprisoned dissident in 2021 following his summit with Putin, Joe Biden made a lot of tough talk: “I made it clear to him that I believe the consequences of that would be devastating for Russia… What do you think happens when he’s saying it’s not about hurting Navalny, all the stuff he says to rationalize the treatment of Navalny, and then he dies in prison?” 

Well, Joe, now Navalny has died in prison, just as you and many others predicted. So what happens now? And if the answer is: virtually nothing, how can we possibly take this White House seriously? They were more invested in getting Brittney Griner out of the country in an effort to appease their domestic political base rather than lobbying for the release of anyone of political note.

For my part, my concern is for my friend Vladimir Kara-Murza, currently in isolation. You can read his latest piece dictated from prison here. He was a pallbearer for John McCain with me — and on Putin’s enemies list, he is in all likelihood the next target. Unlike Navalny, he is a permanent resident of the United States — and his wife and three children are American citizens. If the Biden administration is to have any moral authority, any at all, they must use every tool at their disposal to get such prisoners out, and make Alexei Navalny the last dissident Vladimir Putin murders.

Let us at least find solace in recalling this from Navalny’s 2021 closing statement, in one of his incalculable trials and court hearings:

A man recently wrote to me, “Navalny, why does everyone write to you, ‘Hold on, don’t give up, be patient, grit your teeth?’ What do you have to tolerate? You kind of said in the interview that you believe in God. The Bible says, ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.’ Well, that’s just great for you, isn’t it!” And I thought, how well this man understands me! Because it’s not that I’m fine, but I’ve always thought that this particular commandment is more or less an instruction to activity. And so, while certainly not really enjoying the place where I am, I have no regrets about coming back, or about what I’m doing. It’s fine, because I did the right thing. On the contrary, I feel a real kind of satisfaction. Because at some difficult moment I did as required by the instructions, and did not betray the commandment.

Navalny had no regrets about coming back to Russia. The West can make Putin regret his actions, and they should — but will they?