Navalny poisoned

Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, has been poisoned and is in a coma. He is being treated in a hospital in Omsk, a major city in Western Siberia.

Police officers and secret police agents have cut off all access to him (even his wife isn’t allowed to see him) and confiscated his personal belongings. Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels are already spewing lies: allegedly he got drunk the night before and took a strong “psychedelic” sleeping pill.

All we know is that Navalny was just fine in the morning. Then he had a glass of tea at the Tomsk airport and boarded his flight to Moscow. (He had been visiting Novosibirsk and Tomsk, important Siberian cities, where local elections are due in September.) He became so ill during the flight that the pilot decided on an emergency landing in Omsk.

Every time someone gets apparently poisoned by Kremlin agents, I hear the same: “But it’s not in Moscow’s interest.” I’ve heard it from Russians and non-Russians alike, especially from Western “contrarians.” I used to say that mantra myself. I used to wonder why the Kremlin would ostensibly shoot itself in the foot. I’m none the wiser after all these years, but I’ve learned one thing: in all these cases, the Kremlin either gave the orders to kill or was indirectly complicit in the killings.

As I said in 2015, there’s no way to investigate Putin so it’s impossible to prove his complicity beyond reasonable doubt. But putting two and two together usually helps. Also, dictators are always responsible for political murders in their domains, even when they did not want them to happen.