The film “Navalny,” awarded best documentary feature film at the Academy Awards on Sunday, is not being screened at maximum security penal colony No. 6 east of Moscow where its star, Alexei Navalny, sits in solitary confinement. Nor is it being shown in public in Russia.
Mr. Navalny, the leading opposition voice to President Vladimir Putin, was the target of an assassination attempt by Russian security services using the chemical weapon Novichok in 2020, followed by sham charges of fraud and a prison sentence totaling 11½ years. He has endured maltreatment and isolation from his family — and should be freed.
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End of carouselAlso on the Editorial Board’s agenda
- The misery of Belarus’s political prisoners should not be ignored.
- Biden has a new border plan.
- The United States should keep the pressure on Nicaragua.
- America’s fight against inflation isn’t over.
- The Taliban has doubled down on the repression of women.
- The world’s ice is melting quickly.
Ihar Losik, one of hundreds of young people unjustly jailed in Belarus for opposing Alexander Lukashenko’s dictatorship, attempted suicide but was saved and sent to a prison medical unit, according to the human rights group Viasna. Losik, 30, a blogger who led a popular Telegram channel, was arrested in 2020 and is serving a 15-year prison term on charges of “organizing riots” and “incitement to hatred.” His wife is also a political prisoner. Read more about their struggle — and those of other political prisoners — in a recent editorial.
The Department of Homeland Security has provided details of a plan to prevent a migrant surge along the southern border. The administration would presumptively deny asylum to migrants who failed to seek it in a third country en route — unless they face “an extreme and imminent threat” of rape, kidnapping, torture or murder. Critics allege that this is akin to an illegal Trump-era policy. In fact, President Biden is acting lawfully in response to what was fast becoming an unmanageable flow at the border. Read our most recent editorial on the U.S. asylum system.
Some 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners left that Central American country for the United States in February. President Daniel Ortega released and sent them into exile in a single motion. Nevertheless, it appears that Mr. Ortega let them go under pressure from economic sanctions the United States imposed on his regime when he launched a wave of repression in 2018. The Biden administration should keep the pressure on. Read recent editorials about the situation in Nicaragua.
Inflation remains stubbornly high at 6.4 percent in January. The Federal Reserve’s job is not done in this fight. More interest rate hikes are needed. Read a recent editorial about inflation and the Fed.
Afghanistan’s rulers had promised that barring women from universities was only temporary. But private universities got a letter on Jan. 28 warning them that women are prohibited from taking university entrance examinations. Afghanistan has 140 private universities across 24 provinces, with around 200,000 students. Out of those, some 60,000 to 70,000 are women, the AP reports. Read a recent editorial on women’s rights in Afghanistan.
A new study finds that half the world’s mountain glaciers and ice caps will melt even if global warming is restrained to 1.5 degrees Celsius — which it won’t be. This would feed sea-level rise and imperil water sources for hundreds of millions. Read a recent editorial on how to cope with rising seas, and another on the policies needed to fight climate change.
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As Mr. Navalny wrote in our pages last year, Mr. Putin’s war of aggression not only seeks to destroy Ukraine but also raises the question of what kind of Russia will emerge from the war. Mr. Navalny warned that it could turn toward more militarization and authoritarianism, posing fresh dangers. Or, he suggested, a concerted effort could be made to create a Russian renaissance, taking power out of the hands of one leader and building a parliamentary republic.
It appears unlikely Russia will return to the democratic path it began in 1990s. Much will depend on the war’s outcome. Hopefully, Ukraine will become a thriving, open European society. But we agree with Mr. Navalny that postwar Russia must escape Mr. Putin’s grip and the oppressive autocracy he has imposed.