By Paul Roderick Gregory, Contributor

  Yesterday’s post Putin Declares Himself Dictator With The Navalny Verdict stirred up a hornet’s nest of protest from Putin’s PR machine. According to Putin’s claquers, the Navalny verdict was just. He is a crook. He commands support from only one percent of Russians (All reasonable Russians love Putin). And what can you expect from a hack writer paid generously by Forbes do to do their bidding. Besides, this fool knows nothing about Russia, despite his pretensions. One critic took umbrage at my mention of Alexandra Dukhanina, the teenage girl held under house arrest for more than a year. After all, this vicious masked (wrong, she wore a stocking cap) girl hurled a bit of asphalt at heavily armed riot police. She deserved to be hauled off in a choke hold. (See picture)  Despite my unmasking by Putin supporters, I continue my commentary on the Putin-Navalny shootout. The news of the day: The prosecutor has freed Navalny on bail pending his appeal. The American press has interpreted this either as a concession to Navalny supporters (wrong), as a split within the Kremlin,  or as a clever maneuver to allow Navalny to campaign unsuccessfully in the September Moscow mayoral election against the Russian KGB state’s candidate, Sobyanin. Sobyanin was appointed when Putin fired his predecessor and needs the legitimacy of being elected to office. Navalny is Putin’s first victim to have charisma, an unblemished record, and a following of millions on his blog. Khodorkovsky was an evil oligarch, and the Pussy Riot girls offended traditional Russian values. Navalny represents virgin territory for Putin’s repression machine. Perhaps the Kremlin really does not know what to do. If Putin puts Navalny in jail for five years (which means he needs another sentence at the end of the term), the Navalny legend grows. But a free Navalny will be a constant thorn in Putin’s side as he exposes the theft of billions by Putin and his associates. Allowing Navalny to contest the mayoral race may be too clever by a half. Navalny will be running against a non-Muscovite (from Siberia, no less). To keep Navalny’s vote count down, there will have to be massive fraud, and it was electoral fraud that sent hundreds of thousands to the streets in December of 2011. Instead of giving Sobyanin his electoral mandate, he will go down in history as the one who stole the September 2013 election and set off the massive street demonstrations of September and October of 2013. What is a poor Putin to do? I see that Europe has responded to the Navalny sentence with harsh condemnation. President Obama is said to be concerned and following the situation. He may even cancel his visit to Moscow, but this may have more to do with fugitive Snowden than Navalny. Believe it or not, the United States has tremendous leverage over Putin at this point. Putin has staked his reputation on the success of the winter Olympics in Sochi. The treat of a U.S. boycott could …read more

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