Profiles in (Russian) Courage…….

Alexei Navalny, Putin’s worst nightmare, is going to  jail for five years for embezzlement.  How bad a decision is this?  Mikhail Gorbachev has denounced it as proving that Russia doesn’t have an independent “justice” system.

That, of course, is bad enough…..but if there’s a conspiracy to embezzle, someone besides the embezzler has to be involved.  So, Pyotr Ofitserov is also going to jail, albeit for only four years, since he wasn’t the ringleader of the scheme.  Pyotr will leave behind his wife and five young children, who someday will know what a mensch their father was….even if Putin manages to have him killed in prison.

“In his closing remarks on July 5, Ofitserov said his friends had asked him repeatedly why he didn’t make a deal with prosecutors similar to the one that Opalev made.

“I value my freedom. I value my reputation. I value all the things I have worked for. But there are things that cannot be done. There are things that — once you do them — cut you off from people forever,” Ofitserov said.

“I have five children — three sons and two daughters. I know that if I made a deal, they would need me and that would be great. But, you know, when they grow up, they will ask: ‘Papa, what happened? What did you do?'”

 

There are simply no words……luckily, such things can NEVER happen here!