Alexei Navalny, the great Russian dissident, and longest-living major opponent of Vladimir Putin, was poisoned with tea laced with something at an airport before boarding a flight in Siberia. He is now on a ventilator in critical condition.
The undersigned was, conscious use of past tense there, a great admirer of Navalny. Jailed I don’t know how many times, it was almost a concern if Alexei wasn’t in gaol, his life nonetheless seemed protected from a higher power as opposition leader after opposition leader was assassinated by Putin’s executioners at home in the very shadow of the Kremlin or abroad. Possessing a wry sense of humor that charmed even his jailers, he was that rare thing for an oppressed dissident, an optimist.
A Russian patriot down to every cell in his body, he would not accept any foreign support. He was the greatest of men.
A Russian patriot down to every cell in his body, he would not accept any foreign support. He was the greatest of men.
