Alexi Navaly, the jailed Russian dissident who opposed Russian corruption, the invasion of Ukraine, and Vladimir Putin himself ‘died’ in a Siberian Gulag earlier today. Let me fix that – he was slowly murdered by the Russian state after it had already made an attempt on his life via a Novichok nerve agent in 2020.

Aside from mentioning it here, I won’t wax prosaic about his patriotism or political courage to return to Russia in 2021, knowing he would face guaranteed incarceration and possibly death because of his principled, steadfast beliefs.

What I can speak to is The West’s sanctioning of many entities and natural persons in the Russian state that are to various degrees, a part of this grave problem of corruption, violence, lack of a rule of law, and in this case, human rights violations in Russian society and beyond. It really kicked off in 2014 with Russia’s annexation from Crimea, got worse the the ‘Special Military Operation’ (read: invasion of ) in Ukraine almost 2 years ago in 2022, with further rafts of sanctions still forthcoming. The EU for example, already has 12 rounds of comprehensive sanctions against Russian interests.

So it almost goes without saying that The EU, UK, and US all have copious amounts of sanctions against people, businesses, and vessels in Russia. For the US, we have imposed import/export controls on Russian products and technology, put entities on the SDN (Specially Designated National) lists, established a comprehensive OFAC (Office of Foreign Asset Controls) sanctions regime that targets the people and flows of money/oil needed to prop up the Russian war machine, and more.

Those are just the easy examples…and they almost all stem from Russia’s violent adventurism abroad in one way, shape, or form…and the fallout from those actions. What began in 1999 in Chechnya is now playing out Luhansk, Donetsk, and Crimea in Ukraine. War itself, is ugly enough; with the violent deaths of soldiers on both sides and the fog and friction of war that kills the innocent and rubbles cities in its wake. The willful, continued, and systemic violations of human and political rights at the hands of the Russian state, however…that is why The West has and continues to add to these comprehensive sanctions regimes.

Those violations are perpetrated still to this day by Putin’s puppet in Chechnya – Ramzan Kadyrov. They happen every time a high ranking official ‘accidentally’ falls to their deaths at the hands of shadowy FSB agents from a high window in Moscow. It is in every death, rape, disappearance, and trampling of freedoms in Ukraine that come from and because of the invading Russian Army. The host of Russian war crimes should turn ones stomach. This is today – Putin in 2024, not Stalin in 1951, the Holodomor in 1922, or the Rus’ in 880…

…But the more things change, the more they stay the same it seems and I don’t think Americans fully see/appreciate the whole picture of Russian barbarism and what these sanctions regimes are trying to punish/contain. It’s easy for us to lie comfortably in our beds, far away from the horror and somewhat removed from these sanctions regime unless you are personally affected by it or you are an International Trade/Finance Compliance professional in some way and you think about why you do what you do for a living. For most, the whole issue gets boiled down to a talking head on the evening news for those than even watch; or our sad politics in DC about ‘priorities’ and if we can ‘afford’ to send $60 billion in aid to Ukraine. I don’t know about you, but it all tastes like ashes in my mouth. I also guess that is why I am writing this stretch piece today to get you fair reader, to think about the larger context.

Unsurprisingly then, I do not have the luxury to be apathetic or turn a blind eye, and to orders of magnitude greater than my protests, neither did Alexi Navalny. So with him I close, and try to give a little bit of hope. What does his sacrifice speak of his character and belief in his principles where he would voluntarily go back into the belly of the beast? How many of us with a wife and two children would KNOWINGLY risk our freedom and our life for a losing cause?

Alexi Navalny did, may he rest in peace and give you pause for thought as to why he willingly went to certain imprisonment, and a slow, likely death.

Let Navalny’s martyrdom in the name of freedom and democracy be a wake-up call.  Appeasement and turning a blind eye to men like Putin has a terrible track record throughout history. We need more sanctions and more aid to Ukraine, not less. Not only because it is right, but because it is in our interests. To herald his untimely death and what it stood against is the least I can do on this ignominious day in the face of our relative apathy.

“I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country…”

-Nathan Hale, 1776

-PMH

SLAVA UKRAINI!