Those aware of the Russian state’s increasingly Stalinist suppression of opposition parties and dissidents can scarcely be surprised that Alexei Navalny, healthy and smiling just two days before, has now been reported dead in his Arctic gulag. While the cause of death has not yet been made public, there’s every likelihood that it was officially sanctioned.
But Russia isn’t some lone bad actor. All around the world, states suppress their critics with virtual impunity. And Britain has its own guilty record, with its plans to extradite journalist Julian Assange to a hellish future in some US black site, with even close ally Australia now protesting and demanding his release.
The capitalist state makes criminals of critics, but is the biggest criminal of all.