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If the Novitjok chemical weapon poisoned opposition politician Alexei Navalny, it means that the Kremlin openly left its calling card on the victim.
The power in Russia simply wants to send a message to anyone who opposes Putin’s power.
Both inside and outside.
Novitjok is not something that anyone with a chemical background can mix with ingredients that can be bought in town. The name represents a group of extremely powerful chemical weapons that were developed in Russian laboratories during the Soviet era.
Although it is not possible to establish with certainty that it was President Vladimir Putin who gave the order to clear Navalny from the path, there is no doubt that the clues point directly to those who decide. Against the FSB security service or its military equivalent GRU. Only those or someone with very good connections at the top of these organizations can get hold of Novitjok.
Alternatively, Russia has incredibly poor control over its chemical weapons, which seems highly unlikely.
The natural and spontaneous reaction is: How can the Kremlin be so stupid as to use a poison that only the Russian state can produce if it wants to assassinate the country’s main opposition politicians? Wouldn’t it be better to shoot him and try to make it look like an armed robbery?
Photo: Pavel Golovkin / AP
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny is currently in a coma in a Berlin hospital.
I don’t think power in Russia is stupid. However, completely ruthless.
Those who eventually gave the go-ahead for Navalny to be taken to Germany for treatment knew that it was likely that what had poisoned him would later be revealed and that the clues would point directly to the Russian state.
Don’t be silly with Russia
Therefore, the reasonable conclusion must be that the power in Russia, be it Putin or anyone else, wants to send a message by deliberately trying to assassinate Navalny with a poison to which the state has exclusive access.
The message to the opposition in Russia is that they are risking their lives if they continue to demonstrate against the Putin regime. No one should dare to wear the Navalny cape if he cannot return as a politician.
Photo: Alexei Druzhinin / AP
Russia under Putin is simply doing what it wants.
But there is also a message for the outside world. Don’t you dare play with Russia. The Kremlin is ready to resort to any means to ensure its grip on power. It’s a bit reminiscent of the message that China in recent years has tried to send to the outside world by threatening Western journalists or countries that are trying to interfere in the way China treats dissent. Although China is still incarcerating people instead of poisoning them.
A half-dictatorship and a dictatorship that feels the future belongs to them more than a liberal Western world in decline.
Demands from the outside world to hold those responsible for the Navalny poisoning accountable are met with contempt by the Russian state. The Kremlin will question Germany’s findings, claiming that no evidence has been presented and that it is other countries that have a novitiate that could be behind it. They will try to spread misinformation and confusion in exactly the same way that Russia did after the attempted assassination in Britain two years ago of the defected Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia.
Who dares?
This time, Novitjok got stained on the door handle of Skripal’s home in Salisbury. Through surveillance cameras and passport data, the British were able to prove that two Russian agents were near Skripal’s home during the relevant hours and then flew back to Russia. Both traveled under false identities but were revealed as members of the military intelligence service.
Still, the Kremlin denies that Russia had anything to do with the assassination attempt.
Every time Russia assassinates opposition figures or people the Kremlin considers traitors, the world is shocked. Only slowly do we learn that Russia is not a country that follows the normal rules of the game. The regime sees itself as untouchable.
Russia under Putin is simply doing what it wants. Whether it’s annexing the territory of another country or neutralizing the opposition.
Alexei Navalny is still in a coma at the Charité Hospital in Berlin. It is impossible to know if he will ever make a full recovery. Skripal and his daughter received first-class medical care very quickly. For Navalny, it took several days. Although he, like Skripals, survives, he may have suffered such severe injuries that he will never be able to return to politics.
While Putin only made sure that he could stay in power until 2036.
Is there anyone else who dares to challenge him?
Photo: Pavel Lebedev / Vkontakte
Image taken from the film by passenger Pavel Lebedev, where Alexei Navalny drinks tea at Tomsk airport. “Good morning Alexei” is written on the picture.
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