I must admit, the news of Alexei Navalny’s murder hit me hard. I had clung to hoping beyond hope that somehow someday someway Alexei Navalny would eventually come to power in Russia. Alexei survived chemical attacks to his face and eyes in 2017 and 2019. He miraculously survived poisoning with Novichok nerve agent in 2020. After a four-month recovery in Germany, he returned to his beloved Russia where he was immediately arrested, tried, and sentenced to two years in prison. The following year on more trumped-up charges he was given another nine years and then six months ago he received an additional 19 years for “extremism.” Though Alexei was held in a remote Siberian penal colony known as “Polar Wolf” serving a 30-year sentence, it’s obvious that Vladamir Putin still felt threatened so on February 16th he had Navalny murdered.

Putin’s murderous misstep reveals weakness. This is the moment to push this paranoid psychopath one step closer to the cliff’s edge. Western countries hold $300 billion in frozen Russian assets that should be gifted to Ukraine. The European Union and G7 nations (including the US) have agreed to provide the profits from those Russian holdings (~$4 billion) to Ukraine. Given the devastation to date, the entire $300 billion should no longer be Russian’s asset. Furthermore, Speaker Johnson needs to bring the Ukraine- Israel Aid package to a vote on the House Floor. There are enough supporting House Republicans to pass it, but Mike Johnson won’t release the bill. Staunch support would send the message that the United States isn’t the isolationist collapsing mess that Putin believes it is.