Putin ignores criticism from the West over death of opposition leader

As outrage over the death of Alexei Navalny, a harsh Kremlin critic, resonates around the world, Russian President Vladimir Putin is turning a deaf ear to anger in the West as he prepares to extend his 24-year rule in elections next month and the police continue to silence any attempts at protests throughout Russia.

The United States and its allies are considering imposing new sanctions against Russia over Navalny’s death and the Kremlin’s recent actions in Ukraine. But as American aid to this country remains stalled in Congress and NATO allies in Europe struggle to make up the shortfall, many are wondering what the West can really do to stop the Russian leader, given many previous rounds of sanctions have not achieved this.

The U.S. government and NATO allied countries have been considering new measures to increase support for Ukraine, where the Russian military recently forced Ukrainian troops to withdraw from a key stronghold in the east of the country after a fierce four-month battle. Allies are discussing ways to increase the cost of the war for Russia, in order to force Putin to back down.

But the 71-year-old president vowed to press on, refusing to give up any of his triumphs and declaring last week in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the West will be forced “sooner or later” to negotiate a deal according to the terms of the Russian president.

Navalny’s death shows Putin’s “complete cruelty and contempt… for both Western and international opinion,” said Nigel Gould-Davies, former UK ambassador to Belarus and senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Studies Institute. London Strategic. Russia announced Navalny’s death on Friday, just as Western leaders held a security conference in Munich.

Gould-Davies stressed that Navalny’s death should serve as a “wake-up signal” to Republican lawmakers who oppose aid to Ukraine in Congress and also to encourage European NATO allies to increase their aid to Ukraine. .

“In the end, it all depends on the lessons the West learns,” he added.

But Navalny’s death did not appear to move the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday to commit to a proposed $61 billion aid package for Ukraine, seen as essential for that country to achieve victory.

Even though his victory is almost assured, Putin fears Western interference in the election and viewed Navalny as “an adversary manipulated by the West to undermine national and state interests,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Center Carnegie for Russia and Eurasia.

For many Russians, Navalny was a powerful symbol of hope, said Mark Galeotti, director of the London-based consulting firm Mayak Intelligence, conveying, even from his remote Arctic prison, a vision of the “beautiful Russia of the future.” , a slogan that challenged the Kremlin’s message to Russians to “just survive, just hang your head.”