THE cold-blooded murder of Russian democracy crusader Alexei Navalny may turn out to be the “shot that changed the world”.
His brutal death eerily recalls the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a lone gunman as the moment global politics plunged from unstable peace to catastrophic world war.
This time it might stop one.
Navalny’s bruised body was found in a hospital morgue only days after he was seen cracking jokes in a Siberian court.
Tall, handsome and charismatic, the 47-year-old lawyer paid the price for exposing the bottomless greed and cruelty of Kremlin tyrant Vladimir Putin.
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But above all, his execution was a savage warning to America, Britain and the EU to keep their noses out of Putin’s affairs — especially in Ukraine.
“For them it is an improvement of their tactical position,” the ex-KGB thug snarled in a recent TV interview. “For us it is our fate — it is a matter of life and death.”
Putin scents victory over Kyiv amid signs Western resolve is beginning to melt along with the winter snows.
It is an impression that cannot be allowed to stand.
With hundreds of thousands already dead on both sides, Nato needs to prove him wrong and stop this conflict spreading to other former Soviet states on Russia’s borders.
Under Nato rules, an attack on any of its 31 member nations, including the nuclear-armed UK, is an attack on all — an invitation to all-out war.
Russia is threatening to put nuclear missiles into space, a prospect too hideous to contemplate.
Yet the invasion of an independent sovereign democracy on Europe’s frontier — a candidate for EU and Nato membership — cannot prevail.
Incredible courage
The West’s first response must be for US presidential rivals Donald Trump and Joe Biden to stop bickering and release £47billion earmarked for military aid to war-torn Kyiv.
Next, Britain and the rest of Europe must immediately step up spending to meet their Nato defence commitments.
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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Budget tax cuts may have to be trimmed.
A long overdue display of backbone is required in the face of totalitarian regimes such as China, Russia and Iran.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky desperately requires long-range missiles and Top Gun fighter jets to halt, reverse and ultimately smash the Russian onslaught.
The alternative — a Putin victory — is unthinkable.
If Ukraine is vanquished, none of the remaining former Soviet states — all now EU and Nato members — is safe.
Poland is already arming for possible conflict. Finland and the Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — are also in the firing line.
The timing of Navalny’s killing has chucked a political grenade into the Trump vs Biden battle for the White House
Trevor Kavanagh
Russia throughout history has been an invader — and Putin is obsessed with Russian history.
Navalny’s incredible courage cannot go unrewarded by the freedom-loving Western democracies he dreamed Russia would one day join.
As Russia’s only opposition leader he was a constant thorn in Putin’s flesh, narrowly surviving an assassination bid by secret agents who peppered his underwear with Novichok nerve agent.
Yet despite predicting his own murder, he returned to Moscow to campaign against Kremlin kleptocracy before being jailed in Arctic Siberia on trumped-up corruption charges.
The timing of Navalny’s killing has chucked a political grenade into the Trump vs Biden battle for the White House.
Trump has made no secret of his admiration for the Russian leader and his so-called toughness in defending Russia’s interests.
Trump also sparked dismay by threatening to encourage a Russian attack on any Nato member which failed to pay its share of defence costs.
Gaping chasms
His greatest media ally, Tucker Carlson, has just returned from Moscow after a cringe-making two-hour Putin interview which drew jeers in both America and Russia.
Biden, increasingly frail and dithering, is also blamed for withholding the sort of weapons needed to defeat the Russian invaders.
He might not survive plots to dump him before the November presidential elections.
Meanwhile, Germany, France and other EU countries are divided over continued support for Zelensky.
Navalny’s assassination has revealed gaping chasms in Western unity.
His courage should embarrass hand-wringing Western governments into facing up to their first responsibility — to protect and defend the nations they were elected to lead.
