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Thousands of Russians, braving state terrorism, the bitter weather, and the post-factual narrative of the criminal autocracy, showed up at the funeral of Alexeï Navalny to express their moral commitment and pay tribute to the man who defended, at the expense of his life, the right of Russians to live under a democratic regime that honors fundamental human rights, upholds the tenets of a constitutional state, and denounces the cynicism of a criminal autocracy.
Russian Democrats are vocally opposing the bloody regime and putting forth their democratic yearnings and liberal aspirations as antidotes against the reign of terror. Heir to a noble legacy of moral dissidence whereby objectors under communist regimes have stated their opposition in moral terms and principled engagements, Alexeï Navalny spoke truth to power, debunking the hollowness of state rhetorics and their fallacies. Navalny is the legatee of a line of moral figures who opposed the communist dystopia and its disastrous track records: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Andrei Siniavsky, Andrei Sakharov, Václav Havel, Cardinal Stephan Wyszinsky, Pope John Paul II, Lech Walesa…
Concomitantly, French President Emmanuel Macron, in a bold statement, expressed bluntly the weariness of Western democracies towards the warmongering politics of Vladimir Putin and his blackmailing strategy, and the hypothetical readiness to put boots on the ground to safeguard Ukraine and preempt the predatory dynamics of an unhinged Russian imperialism. Putin reacted swiftly and broadcast his readiness to use nuclear power and bring about a doomsday scenario while expressing his readiness to negotiate with the USA.
The tendentious assertions are meant to elicit fear in the European community, drive a wedge between the EU and the United States of America, manipulate political differences, and unravel the European federation. However, opposed by some weighty members of the EU and the USA for prudential reasons, the statement of President Macron served as a wake-up call to NATO and the OSCE (Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe) and sounded a warning against any disengagement related to the strengthening of Ukraine’s strategic security.
The security of Ukraine is located on a continuum with Georgia, Moldavia, Eastern Armenia and Artsakh, the Baltic States, and the Eurasian limes of European security. The purported negotiation with the US is a ploy that betrays his true intentions: the moral and political relegation of Europe, which he never acknowledged and permanently perceived as a target. Otherwise, the Russian politics of subversion are part of the emerging Cold War scenarios and their multiple strategic nodes.
Paradoxically enough, the neo-imperial drive of Russia seems to cater to Chinese and Iranian power politics, and to the Latin American leftovers (Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela…) of the former Cold War (1945–1999). The events that succeeded on October 7, 2023, along with the Ukrainian conflict, are interrelated and should be dealt with from an integrated perspective insofar as the containment policies are concerned: both Russia and Iran should be checkmated and ultimately thwarted, let alone defeated. Diplomacy has no chance to work unless power relationships are set right.
