In the end it is Vladimir Putin to laugh heartily. Yes, because according to what was reported by the Washington Post, the first lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska decided to decline the invitation from the White House on the occasion of the State of the Union speech that the American president, Joe Biden, held on Thursday. The news is not so much this, but rather the reasons behind this sharp and peremptory “no” from the president’s wife Volodymyr Zelensky: the possible presence of Yulia Navalnayawidow of the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. Enemies of Putin, but this is not enough to unite forces. The reasons are clear.
According to what was reported by the Washington Post, the presence of Navalny’s widow would have caused embarrassment to the Ukrainians because Kiev would not have forgotten old statements by Navalny on Crimea. In Kiev no one forgave the nationalist declarations of the symbol of opposition to Putin: Navalny had in fact supported the annexation of Crimea by Moscow in 2014, and then corrected its positions years later and reiterated its opposition to the 2022 invasion. The reasons for the refusal made known by Kiev were different: Zelenska rejected the American invitation due to previous commitments and not to the presence of Navalny’s widow.
But that is not all. Zelensky’s wife will not be the only one to defect from the event starring Biden. Also Yulia Navalnaya decided not to participate: “Yulia was invited and considered going”, but “I think everyone forgets the circumstances of the events” with “her husband who died two weeks ago” and her who “was in I’ve been traveling all this time”, the words of Kira Yarmish, who for years was the dissident’s spokesperson. Today is the first day the widow has returned home and she needs time to recover.
In short, the climate is hot and the war remains in the background, as does Kiev’s need to obtain further military aid. As highlighted at the beginning, the only one who can smile is Putin.
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