CHUCK TURNS SCREWS ON AID
Says Putin foe Navalny’s death makes money for Ukraine even more critical
An “urgent alarm bell” is ringing in the wake of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death in prison, making Ukraine aid even more essential, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions are clear, he said in a statement aimed especially at House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who has said he and his fellow Republicans refuse to be rushed. Schumer said recent events should change that stance.
“The death of Russia’s Navalny shows there are the enormously high stakes with the supplemental package: our security, our values, our democracy. It is a down payment for the survival of Western democracy and the survival of American values,” the New York Dem stated.
“The entire world is going to remember what the U.S. did here. Nothing — nothing — would make Putin happier right now than to see Congress waver in its support for Ukraine. Nothing would help him more on the battlefield.”
The Senate recently passed a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine and Israel, but it remains in limbo in the House of Representatives.
“With the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s political foe, Alexei Navalny, an urgent alarm bell now rings,” Schumer said. “Navalny’s death now makes it even more urgent for House Speaker Johnson to pass the National Security Supplemental. This bipartisan bill currently sits at the feet of Speaker Johnson, and Putin is watching.”
Two days before Navalny’s death at age 47 on Friday — a tragedy Russian authorities blamed on “sudden death syndrome” but which Kremlin critics have described as murder — Johnson swore that he and fellow GOP lawmakers would not be “jammed or forced into passing a foreign aid bill.”
After the Russian opposition leader’s death was announced, Johnson did not appear to change his stance.
“As Congress debates the best path forward to support Ukraine, the United States and our partners must be using every means available to cut off Putin’s ability to fund his unprovoked war in Ukraine and aggression against the Baltic states,” Johnson said in a statement without going into specifics.
The foreign aid bill includes $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel’s war against Hamas, $8 billion to help Taiwan and its Indo-Pacific partners hold their own against China and $9.2 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza.
Republicans previously said they wouldn’t support such spending without a crackdown on the U.S.-Mexico border, but shot down a bipartisan Senate deal on border security earlier this month.
Virtually every Western leader has blamed Navalny’s death on Putin, many of whose opponents have died during his time in power.
Schumer joined President Biden, fellow Democrats and others who support ongoing aid to Ukraine in arguing that Russia’s war on Ukraine is far from a regional struggle.
“We find ourselves yet again in a moment of history when democracy is under siege, and the death of Putin’s political foe encapsulates exactly what is at stake and the urgency required to prevail,” the senator stated.
“The message — if we fail — would be that America cannot be trusted. We as a body, as a Congress, as a country cannot afford to send that message.”