, Columnist
Alexey Navalny's Courage Should Wake Up the West
Sanctions don’t work quickly, but the Kremlin’s current discomfort shows it’s essential to keep up the pressure.
Show of force.
Photographer: Sergei Bobylev/TASS via Getty Images
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Even by the standards of President Vladimir Putin’s Russia, this is an ugly moment.
A Moscow court this week sentenced the Kremlin’s loudest critic to three-and-a-half years in jail. In a tragicomic touch, Alexey Navalny is accused of failing to comply with a summons while in Germany recovering from an attack with military-grade poison in which Russia denies any involvement. Out on the streets, police beat his supporters and detained almost 1,500 people. Thousands more were hauled away over two weekends of protests.