Also on today’s menu:
Smirnov Indictment Torpedos Case Against President
Money For Kansas City Victim’s Family
The prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region of Russia has announced that jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny is dead.
Navalny had survived an attempt to kill him with the nerve agent Novichok, but after his recovery in Germany, he flew home, saying he had to be in Russia, whatever the risk. Authorities arrested Navalny as he landed in Moscow in January 2021, and has kept him in prison ever since.
In a Valentine’s Day post on Instagram, he wrote to his wife, “Between us there are cities [and] thousands of kilometers. But I feel that you are near every second, and I love you more and more.”
Discussion: Navalny knew that returning to Russia would carry the risk of death, but he believed that his presence as an opposition figure to Vladimir Putin was something important enough to override concerns about personal safety. The 47-year-old “felt unwell after a walk and almost immediately lost consciousness,” prison authorities said, but most people believe it was a political assassination attributable to Putin. Navalny looked healthy when he appeared by video for a courtroom appeal on February 15, but last year he had been hospitalized after complaining of malnourishment and other ailments due to mistreatment in the prison.
Smirnov Indictment Torpedos Case Against President
A federal grand jury in the Central District of California has indicted 43-year-old Alexander Smirnov of giving false statements to the FBI about President Biden Jr. and Hunter Biden, and authorities arrested Smirnov on February 15 as he arrived in Las Vegas from an overseas flight.
In a 37-page indictment dated June 2023 but released on Thursday, Special Counsel David Weiss, who has overseen the investigation into Hunter Biden’s activities — including his interactions with Burisma, the Ukraine-based oil and natural gas company that made him a board member in 2014 while his father was serving as vice-president — said Smirnov “transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contact with Burisma in 2017 … into bribery allegations against [Joe Biden]” after having expressed views against the president and his candidacy.
Smirnov faces up to 25 years in prison for alleged lies that provided the basis for Republicans’ efforts to impeach President Biden.
Discussion: Keep in mind that an indictment is not a finding of guilt, but an independent jury’s decision, after hearing from prosecutors, that sufficient evidence exists to warrant a court trial. However, apart from Smirnov’s allegations, there has been no evidence that the president profited from any of his son’s business dealings. Hunter obviously profited from his father’s political associations, but that seems to be as far as it goes. Also note that Weiss is a Trump appointee, yet he has not found the allegations against the president to be true.
Money For Kansas City Victim’s Family
Taylor Swift has donated $100,000 to the family of Lisa Lopez-Galvan, killed in the mass shooting after a parade celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl win. In making two $50,000 donations to the family, Swift wrote, “Sending my deepest sympathies and condolences in the wake of your devastating loss.” The donation is intended to provide “vital financial support” to the radio DJ’s family — her husband and two children.
Swift, whose boyfriend, Travis Kelce, plays for the Chiefs, is known for making financial donations, including $1 million for tornado relief efforts in her native Nashville in 2020 and $5 million in bonuses for the truck drivers working on her singing tour. She currently is performing in Australia on her Eras tour.
Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said the shooting that also injured 21 others was not a terrorist act or “homegrown violent extremism” but, instead, “appeared to be a dispute between several people that ended in gunfire”. Police have arrested three people, and two teenage children remain in custody.
Discussion: Taylor Swift’s revenue from ticket sales, music catalog, streaming deals, and record sales have given her an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion, making her philanthropy possible, and her close association with the Kansas City Chiefs dictates generosity in this case. That is not to minimize the act of giving.