'Germany thinks it can criticize Russia on human rights while going ahead with the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that will fill Putin's pockets with cash and his military's guns with bullets. Those bullets are used against Europeans in Ukraine and, God forbid, against Russians in the streets. Europe thinks it can separate business and politics, but to Putin it's all the same: business.''Putin has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to beef up internal security forces during his 20 years in power, and most of that money came from rich western nations, especially before Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2014 finally led to scattered sanctions — too little, too late. Such deals with the devil inevitably backfire. As I warned in 2007, with every act of appeasement Putin has gone from a local problem to a regional menace to a global threat.
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Germany thinks it can criticize Russia on human rights while going ahead with the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that will fill Putin's pockets with cash and his military's guns with bullets. Those bullets are used against Europeans in Ukraine and, God forbid, against Russians in the streets. Europe thinks it can separate business and politics, but to Putin it's all the same: business.
President Biden spoke with Putin on the phone on January 26, a call described as confrontational over Russian cyberattacks and Navalny. But phone calls aren't the test, action is. Putin's impunity will only grow unless there are rapid repercussions for his criminal acts, beginning with targeted sanctions on the Russians named by Navalny's organization.
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Like our literature, Russian history is not known for happy endings. Time is running out to change the course of this story.'
- Garry Kasparov,
The people who let Putin get away with persecuting Navalny, February 4, 2021
Context'..First, freeze the Western assets and property of Russia’s leading oligarchs that Navalny alleges were obtained through corruption..'