President Biden called Vladimir Putin earlier this week and challenged him over Russia’s malign global activity. The rebuke won’t work. The Russian leader respects only actions, not words. This is why Biden should immediately sanction at least four individuals that Russian investigative journalist Alexei Navalny has identified as key Putin facilitators.
Navalny is now languishing in a Moscow prison on trumped-up charges, five months after Putin’s FSB intelligence service attempted to assassinate him with a Novichok-class nerve agent. Navalny’s courageous stance for human freedom and his decision to return to Russia at very significant risk to his own life should inspire Biden to action. What Putin is doing to Navalny is a direct extension of what Putin is doing to the United States and our allies: attacking the basic foundations of the post-Second World War international order.
