At the Munich Security Conference, the reactions to A.Navalno’s death were disappointing: the West is not ready to take decisive decisions

A speech delivered through tears

“I thought for a long time whether I should stand here or fly straight to my children. But then I thought about what Alexei would do in my place. And I’m sure he would be here. He would be on this stage”, J. Navalnaya began his speech.

“I want to appeal to the entire world community, to all the people in this hall, to the people all over the world, to be united and defeat this evil.

Vida Press photo/Aleksej Navalnas and Julia Navalnaya

To defeat the horrible regime that is now in Russia. Both this regime and Vladimir Putin must be personally responsible for all the terrible things they have done to our country Russia in recent years,” said the wife of the deceased opposition figure at the Munich Security Conference.

I’m very sorry, but

However, according to D. Šakalienė, this heartbreaking speech did not arouse the determination of Western politicians.

“Frankly speaking, there is nothing strange here. Even German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in his speech that this (A.Navalno’s murder) is not surprising.

One could interpret this as a sign of Vladimir Putin’s weakness, but let’s not forget that this is generally just his operating strategy. He has always done so and plans to continue to do so – to destroy his competitors.

However, if we were to talk about some kind of mobilization effect, then no, it does not exist. Everyone just sympathized, took pity.

Most of the speeches I heard started with a mention of Navalny’s assassination, both by Ambassador Heusgen, who opened the conference, and by US Vice President Kamala Harris, by many other speakers.

However, I could summarize all of their statements in one sentence: “it’s very unfortunate that this happened.”

According to the politician, until now the conference did not notice that the killing of A.Navalno signals the consolidation of V.Putin’s power.

“Everyone wants to believe that both the bombing of Yevgeny Prigozhin earlier and the killing of A. Navalny now mean that some kind of split is taking place in the Kremlin.

However, such hopes have no basis. It is simply very reminiscent of similar processes in other autocratic regimes, when everyone who is considered an opponent is killed by order of the government, sending a clear message that no one should even try to move in the direction of resistance,” stated D. Šakalienė.

Destroys enemies

The member of the Seimas recalled that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy emphasized in his speech at the Munich Security Conference that A. Navalny was killed on the opening day of an event of great importance to V. Putin.

Kremlin.ru/Russian President Vladimir Putin

“It is very symbolic, bearing in mind that V. Putin basically announced his imperial ambitions at the same conference about 17 years ago, and everyone ignored them all that time,” the politician stated.

D. Šakalienė noticed that although the founder of “Wager” J. Prigožinas and A. Navalnas were radically different personalities, from the point of view of the Russian leader, he saw them as competitors who needed to be “eliminated”.

Sensing the prevailing mood at the Munich Security Conference, D. Šakalienė confirmed the thoughts previously expressed by political scientists that the West is not ready to give an adequate response to Russia.

“Europe is solving very complex problems on its own today. That and increasing defense funding, getting the defense industry up and running, there are a lot of complex processes and we’re all in a very complex time. Therefore, it is not surprising that Russia has killed another opposition figure. Few people get angry and want to take decisive action”, commented the parliamentarian.

Žygimanto Gedvilos/BNS photo/Dovilė Šakalienė

According to D. Šakalienė, J. Navalna’s speech at the Munich security meeting was accepted more as an emotional expression.

“The reactions were more sympathy than shock, which forces a change in the political course,” the parliamentarian assessed.

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