A kangaroo court has just ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to go to a prison camp for 2½ years for allegedly violating his parole – while he was in a coma due to a poisoning plot in the Kremlin. Western leaders rightly condemned the injustice, but it all seems to be talk.
After all, President Biden has just extended the Moscow-favored New Start arms limit treaty for five years, while Germany is pushing ahead with a Nord Stream natural gas pipeline that will give Putin more leverage over border states like Ukraine.
Set aside this “ internal issue ” as Putin’s followers call it: with his wars (proxy and otherwise), his cheating on the Olympics, his cyber-attacks and meddling in other countries ‘elections and his conquest of other countries’ territories, the Russian strongman has proven himself an enemy of civilized standards. It’s time to stop doing business with him, period, and treat him like the pariah he should be.