8chan/8kun QResearch Posts (1)
#20435411 at 2024-02-18 16:27:07 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #25070: Truckes For Trump NYC Edition
Death of Kremlin Foe Alexei Navalny Provokes Western Outrage but Few Concrete Actions to Stop Putin
https://apnews.com/article/russia-putin-navalny-ukraine-21fcaf4737fc7c8224501781693a64d7
As outrage over the death of chief Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny reverberates across the world, Russian President Vladimir Putin is turning a deaf ear to Western anger as he prepares to extend his 24-year rule in an election next month and police across Russia continue to squelch any protest attempts.
The U.S. and its allies are pondering new sanctions against Russia over Navalny's death and the Kremlin's recent actions in Ukraine. But as U.S. aid for Ukraine remains stuck in Congress and NATO allies in Europe struggle to fill the gap, many wonder what the West can actually do to stop the ruthless Kremlin leader, given that multiple previous rounds of penalties have failed to.
"There isn't really the room for any great value in additional sanctions" against Russia, already one of the most sanctioned countries in the world, Mark Galeotti, head of the London-based Mayak Intelligence consultancy firm noted in a YouTube commentary.
Instead, Galeotti said, the West should focus more on working with Navalny's allies and helping ordinary Russians get access to information channels that counter Kremlin propaganda.
Such efforts are key especially now, according to Galeotti, who described Navalny's death as yet another step in Putin's transition from "hybrid authoritarianism" to "brutal thuggish despotism."
The U.S. and NATO allies have been weighing more actions to bolster support for Ukraine, where the Russian military has just forced Ukrainian troops to retreat from the key eastern stronghold of Avdiivka after a four-month ferocious battle. The allies discussed ways to increase the cost of war to Russia to force Putin to back down.
But the 71-year-old leader has vowed to press on, refusing to relinquish any of his gains and declaring in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson last week that the West will "sooner or later" be forced to negotiate a deal - on his terms.
Navalny's death shows Putin's "complete ruthlessness and disdain ... for both Western and international opinion," said Nigel Gould-Davies, a former British ambassador to Belarus and senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. Russia announced Navalny's death on Friday, just as Western leaders gathered at a security conference in Munich.
Putin is "throwing down a gauntlet to the West," Gould-Davies said. "As we come up to the second anniversary of the (Ukraine) war, he is again testing Western resolve."
Navalny's death should serve as a "wake-up call" to U.S. Republicans opposing aid for Ukraine in Congress and also encourage European NATO allies to bolster their assistance to Ukraine, Gould-Davies said.
"Ultimately it depends on the lessons that the West draws," he said.
But Navalny's death didn't appear to move the U.S. House speaker Friday to commit to a proposed $61 billion aid package for Ukraine, seen as crucial to a Ukrainian victory.