Already languishing in a Russian gulag, Alexei Navalny was hit with new criminal charges on Wednesday.
These charges are designed to keep the journalist and opposition leader imprisoned in perpetuity. This Russian action is thus a test for President Joe Biden. The president has said he will take action to uphold Navalny’s basic human rights. Will he now do so?
It’s unlikely.
As we’re seeing in Afghanistan, Biden isn’t terribly interested in the human rights of American allies. Moreover, and contrary to most media reporting, Biden has largely been unwilling to challenge Putin’s aggression.
True, former President Donald Trump sometimes was not much better as he often and absurdly deluded himself as to Putin’s intentions. In functional policy terms, however, Trump’s overall record against Putin was tougher than that of Biden. Where Trump worked to kill off Putin’s Nord Stream II energy pipeline to Europe, Biden cut an absurd deal that will see the pipeline’s completion. Biden has thus helped Germany support Putin’s energy extortion and his destabilizing of NATO’s eastern flank. Where Trump authorized aggressive intelligence operations against Russia, especially in cyberspace, Biden appeases Russian ransomware attacks.
Still, this latest targeting of Navalny is highly predictable.
Navalny’s FBK anti-corruption group has already been banned by Russia on the grounds of being an extremist organization. But Navalny now faces charges for establishing the FBK in a way “that infringes on the [reputation] and rights of citizens.” Indicating their political motive, prosecutors are also targeting Navalny for his organizing of unauthorized protests.
These charges come from the Investigative Committee of Russia, a federal law enforcement entity that is focused on weakening Putin’s critics. Led by Alexander Bastrykin, a Putin crony and plagiarist who is under U.S. sanctions, the committee conducts some actual law enforcement work. But it also targets those who upset the regime while protecting regime allies. I can attest to this personally. I understand that the committee has charged me as a terrorist under the pretext of a 2018 article I wrote. It is more likely that the charges are actually intended as retaliation over my investigative journalism into Russian intelligence activities.
Regardless, Putin is gambling that if he keeps throwing trumped-up charges against his political nemesis, Navalny will never again see the light of a free day. And the longer he’s imprisoned, the threats to Navalny’s life will only grow. Recall that this time last year, the FSB attempted to assassinate Navalny in a botched nerve agent attack.
As a candidate, Biden pledged to stand up to Putin when the Russian leader shredded human rights and attacked the West. Biden recently failed that test in Syria. It’s time for him to act. The U.S. should escalate its sanctions pressure on Putin’s top cronies.
Alisher Usmanov, Roman Abramovich, Petr Aven, and Mikhail Fridman would be good places to start.
