President Vladimir Putin couldn’t murder opposition leader Alexei Navalny with a bullet behind closed doors in the good-old Soviet way—at least not according to Russia’s current constitution.
President Vladimir Putin couldn’t murder opposition leader Alexei Navalny with a bullet behind closed doors in the good-old Soviet way—at least not according to Russia’s current constitution. And that document has surprising importance to the country’s sham democracy and its leader.
It’s an interesting document, and it may have prolonged Navalny’s life, though for reasons that have little to do with the rule of law.
Only those guilty of one or more of five serious crimes officially can be executed, according to this piece of paper Putin has amended many times to give himself more power, or more time in power.
But he did bother to amend it.
Russia is a place where forms must be followed and “justice” offered with the state’s one hand, while summary judgment is dealt out with the other.
Navalny, an irritant for more than a decade, was never charged with the particularly grim forms of murder that would qualify for a death sentence. Nor was he accused of attempting to murder a judge, nor a police officer, nor a state official, nor genocide.
So how does the dictator of a shadow republic handle a man whose courage in word and action are nearly indistinguishable from suicidal intentions?
In Russia’s case, Navalny was treated with a two-prong approach.
First, he was allowed a measured amount of rope.
For the Kremlin, Navalny offered the opportunity to demonstrate its free-speech credentials to the gullible, both external and internal. Navalny was allowed to speak and to work, with obstacles strategically placed in his path.
