Honourable senators, I rise today to add my voice to the tributes to the courageous life of Alexei Navalny. I thank Senator Omidvar for bringing forward this inquiry. She has already pointed to the bravery and determination displayed by Navalny as he fought for democracy in Russia and uncovered the depth of corruption present throughout Putin’s reign. I too would like to commemorate his heroism.

Navalny’s relentless opposition to Putin’s autocratic terrorism was met with harassment and violence, but he remained undeterred. Sadly, his work toward achieving a better and democratic Russia resulted in his death. I hope that his unwavering commitment to justice will serve as an example for us all as we support Ukraine in its ongoing struggle to shake off Russian tyranny and oppression.

Navalny’s sordid death as a political prisoner clearly demonstrates the cold-blooded terrors that underline Putin’s approach to those who oppose him, be these people or states. Navalny’s death also clearly illustrates how Putin uses a robust, sophisticated and unrelenting propaganda machine to influence the global political narrative. Even after Navalny’s death, Putin’s propaganda machine has been working to discredit Navalny’s character and deflect attention away from his legacy of fighting corruption. Unfortunately, this propaganda tsunami is not limited to Alexei Navalny. Weaponized propaganda is also directed internally toward Russians from all walks of life. Externally, it attempts to destabilize democratic states, such as our own country, by forcing open social fractures, polarizing our politics and demonizing our democratic institutions. Putin uses this well-orchestrated propaganda offensive to distract from and distort his crimes against both his own people and Ukraine.

If you have not yet seen the Oscar-winning film 20 Days in Mariupol, I urge you to do so. It is a difficult movie to watch, but beautifully shows the propaganda machine of Putin at work regarding the attack of the hospital in Mariupol and the deaths of pregnant women, babies and infant children, then the Russian television and speeches at the UN that followed.

While this purveyance of falsehood is morally repugnant, it is not a new tool in Russia’s tool kit. Putin’s history of state‑sanctioned violence and suppression of dissent follows smoothly in the footsteps of his predecessors. Since the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, Russian leaders have been using the same playbook of silencing opposition with propaganda, threats, intimidation, false imprisonment and murder. During Lenin’s rule, the KGB, then known as the Cheka, engaged in a program of state violence known as the Red Terror in order to solidify its political control. Mass shootings and hangings of dissidents took place, with over 100,000 estimated to have been killed during this short period of time. Stalin also sought to silence those he considered a threat, as was seen both in his ordered assassination of Trotsky and his attempt to suppress Ukrainians’ desire for independence through the Holodomor, a famine he imposed that was responsible for approximately 4 million Ukrainian deaths.

Throughout the following decades after Stalin’s death, various Russian state leaders continued to use the KGB to muzzle their critics. The message behind the long line of intimidation, false imprisonment, torture and murder was clear: Toe the line or else.

Today, Putin continues in the footsteps of his predecessors, showing with his actions that he feels the best way to deal with any opposition is to eliminate it.

Let’s consider a few cases:

Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist and human rights activist who authored several books about Putin’s Russia, was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment in Moscow.

Alexander Litvinenko, a former officer in Russia’s spy agency turned journalist, was poisoned for criticizing the Kremlin.

Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader and Boris Yeltsin’s deputy prime minister, was shot four times in the back within view of the Kremlin.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were both targeted in an attempted poisoning in England. In this attempted assassination, Putin’s brazen disregard for other countries’ sovereignty was on full display.

This same disregard for countries’ sovereignty has long been understood in Ukraine. In the case of Viktor Yushchenko, the scars from his poisoning became a symbol for Ukrainian resistance against a corrupt regime, which only made his popular support grow stronger.

The Ukrainian people stood up to Putin. We in the West need to take this lesson to heart. The idea of a free, democratic and sovereign Ukraine is one that can’t be stamped out, no matter how much Putin works to silence it.

Despite possessing one of the world’s largest military powers, Putin’s Russia has repeatedly failed to make the military victories he predicted it would. Instead, thanks to the incredibly successful efforts of Ukrainian soldiers and ordinary citizens, Russia has been defeated again and again and again.

Putin sees these military losses, the rallying of Western support around Ukraine and he’s been forced to change the propaganda narrative to reframe these losses as victories and intensify his threats and propaganda attack on the West. He, as we know, has also reached out to rogue states and countries antagonistic towards Western values for more support.

History tells us that in Putin’s Russia, aggression and violence — be it against individuals such as Navalny or states such as Ukraine — are baked into the Russian imperialistic, autocratic ideology. This is directed against its own people who dissent as well as towards Western-leaning countries who provide an alternative political and economic vision.

As historian Timothy Snyder also tells us, autocracies such as Russia must lose defining wars to devolve from autocratic into democratic regimes. Making sure that Ukraine wins this war may just be the best thing that can bring democracy to Russia.

Now more than ever, it is important that we vigorously support Ukraine in winning this war. We can honour the legacy of Navalny by standing up to this autocratic regime and ending this pattern of Russian aggression.

As I said before in this chamber, when Ukraine wins, there will be no more war, but if Russia wins, there will be no more Ukraine. Because of these incredibly high stakes, we must up our game when it comes to military support. We must better help Ukraine protect itself and be able to launch offensive defensive measures.

For the sake of democracy the world over and for Ukrainian people’s rights to their national sovereignty and safe and peaceful lives, I implore us to both continue the good work we have been doing in Canada and to significantly enhance the advocacy, financial, humanitarian and especially military aid. We must seize Russian assets and repurpose them for Ukraine for in this way we can help to keep the spirit that was Navalny alive.

D’akuju.