No Yardstick

More than a week has passed since Alexey Navalny’s death in an Arctic prison colony – a death which, while its exact circumstances have not been revealed, can, in my opinion, rightly be called a murder, for which Vladimir Putin as the head of a system where such killings – from Natalya Estemirova to Boris Nemtsov and others – can happen without consequences, bears ultimate responsibility. It is also terrible news for those believing, like Navalny optimistically did, in a different, better Russia of the future. However, reactions to Navalny’s killing over the past week have also shown why the Kremlin considers him a threat, even in his death.