The unjust imprisonment of Alexei Navalny must not be forgotten, but expanded to the unjust condition of all Russians in Putin's dictatorship. The free world must support a movement, not only a man. My op-ed with @AVindman in the Washington Post: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Navalny always urges his supporters to keep fighting despite his repeated jailings and even Putin's murder attempts. The US should heed his advice by targeting Putin's gang and authoritarianism & corruption broadly.
As Navalny says, fighting Putin is pro-Russian, and the same is true about supporting democracy there. And it's not just idealism or pushing back against Putin's aggression. A world with more democracy makes Americans safer and more prosperous.
Putin's invasions, assassinations and election interference weaken the resistance of the Western nations where his mafia & their families live and keep their money. Stop helping them and start supporting democracy. @AVindman and I today in WaPo: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

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More from @Kasparov63

17 Mar
Bingo. As I said in our RDI event with @EliotHiggins yesterday, the free world refuses to admit it's in a war and so is losing without a fight. Unless there are serious consequences for traitors and their handlers, it will only get worse.
One of the ways the West has failed to adapt to fighting modern dictatorships like Putin's is still thinking about national interests and ideology instead of individual greed. It's the money, stupid.
Betraying your country for cash instead of Communism is not an improvement. Putin and now the Saudi & Chinese dictatorships have figured out they can just buy what they want with few limits. Wallets instead of hearts and minds.
Read 4 tweets
6 Mar
Schröder does openly what would be a scandal bordering on treason were it uncovered. Brazen influence peddling in the service of Putin's hostile dictatorship. Now China too, why not?
"Realpolitik" was a failure even when in good faith. The pragmatic pursuit of interests over value-based foreign policy fails in the face of authoritarian regimes with no values at all. They take the deals and use "engagement" to spread corruption.
As for Schröder and his ilk, we take "realpolitik" from his language, but their behavior has a more accurate German word: "Prostitution". Though selling your soul and selling out your country is far less respectable!
Read 4 tweets
3 Mar
This is the trend I've been writing and speaking about over a decade, and much this democracy slide is due to the free world abandoning the defense of its values to "engage" with dictatorships like China & Putin's Russia. Needlessly.
The autocratic, populist Trump rising wasn't a coincidence. It came after years of the US pretending democracy was just a word, and abandoning it abroad inevitably devalues it at home.
I wrote this for the WSJ five years ago, on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union. Every condition about losing the will to stand up for democratic rights has gotten worse, as the Freedom House report documents. wsj.com/articles/the-u…
Read 6 tweets
2 Mar
My appearance on the @MehdiHasanShow last night, my thanks to @mehdirhasan. I'm dismissive of Navalny's old remarks as irrelevant to his circumstances as a political prisoner. Arguing them easily falls into the Kremlin smear campaign.
Navalny has just been sent to a vile Russian prison so Putin can torture him in full view of Europe's appeasers. He may not live to see another day of freedom. His politics (which are very liberal for Russia btw) or some nasty remarks a dozen years ago are a distraction.
Liberal Western orgs like Amnesty grabbing onto these old remarks reminds me of the "he was no angel" tropes that the right push when there is a police killing. It's a deflection. Debate Navalny's politics when he's free. And unlike Putin, he will actually debate!
Read 5 tweets
21 Feb
A Tale of Two Trials, my new op-ed in the @NYDailyNews. Navalny's conviction and Trump's acquittal both demonstrated dangerous dysfunction and injustice. nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-ope…
Trump was acquitted for political reasons despite overwhelming evidence against him. Navalny was convicted for political reasons despite a lack of evidence. Trump acted like a coward when he had nothing to lose. Navalny showed courage when he had everything to lose.
Trump insisting he won the election would be nothing more than the ravings of a broken mind, akin to believing he’s Jesus or Napoleon, if so many others weren’t invested in propagating the delusion. That makes it dangerous, as we saw in Jan 6th.
Read 5 tweets
19 Feb
My latest Avast blog post about what the Trump Twitter ban does, and does not, have to do with free speech. Beware of putting more power in government hands when your side is in charge, because you aren't going to get that power back. blog.avast.com/the-free-speec…
The US free speech system is a shifting triangle, with private and govt points. The third is the people, as consumers and voters. Complain that companies have too much power, but don't expect to be happy if the government steps in harder.
The privatized system can be effective. Trump's supporters and pro-Trump media only cut back on lying about 2020 election fraud when lawsuits came in from voting machine companies.
Read 4 tweets

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