“Like a scared schoolboy”: Navalny condemns US for getting used to Putin

“Like a scared schoolboy”
Navalny accuses the United States of manipulating Putin

01/19/2022 8:53 pm

For months, NATO has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of preparing his troops for an attack on Ukraine. His political opponent, Navalny, is highly critical of the fact that the West is taking the Kremlin leader’s threatening gestures seriously. “Ignore this nonsense,” he calls.

Alexei Nawali, a Kremlin jailer, has warned Western nations against making concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin over the conflict in Ukraine. The West continues to fall into Putin’s trap, the opposition leader wrote in several letters to Time magazine from the prison camp. The magazine turned it into a cover.

“Instead of ignoring this nonsense, the United States is rushing to adopt Putin’s agenda and organize some meetings. Like a frightened schoolboy bullied by a high school student,” Navalny explained in a written interview. For months, the United States and NATO have been accusing Russia of plotting to invade Ukraine. Russia denies this. Several high-level meetings have already taken place on Moscow’s demands to restrict security guarantees in the West.

According to Navalny, the Kremlin leader Putin fears less NATO in front of Russia’s borders than a change of power. “Putin needs all these drastic measures to unite the country and the elite, all these wars – real, virtual, hybrid or on the brink of war.” Navalny said combining the threat of Western sanctions in the event of an invasion of Ukraine was part of Putin’s strategy to prevent personal penalties. He suggested that the United States put pressure on the Kremlin from outside and that his supporters in Russia put pressure on the Kremlin from inside. According to him, this could divide the elite around Putin.

A fierce opponent of the Russian president has been working for years in a prison camp in Pokro, 100 kilometers east of Moscow. Navalny was arrested a year ago at the Moscow airport after being treated for an attack by a chemical warfare agent, Novichok. In an interview, the 45-year-old praised former Chancellor Angela Merkel, who met him at Charité University Hospital in Berlin: “Angela Merkel surprised me by knowing the smallest detail about my case and both. About Russia as a whole.”