Speech at the plenary session in the debate on Alexei Navalny
Let’s take a good look, let’s take a closer look because there is more to this Navalny case than an unbelievable denial of rights and of all the freedoms.
Those are evident, and this Parliament must denounce and sanction these denial of rights, but what the Navalny affair tells us, first of all, is that this regime is now weakened.
If it had not arrested the man who came back to defy it, it would no doubt have emboldened the opposition. In any case, Putin could have feared this scenario but, by having Navalny arrested, he turns an opponent who had nothing but his bare hands into a national hero, engaged in a duel with a president who is running out of breath.
Mr Putin is bogged down in Syria, stalled in Ukraine, fallen into hesitation in Belarus. Mr Putin is losing his touch. His coffers are getting empty. His popularity is waning. Let’s take a closer look and we will see the distress of an aging man who no longer knows how to silence this reckless avenger.
