Alexei Navalny Is Dead. Is His Movement Gone With Him?

Alexei Navalny died last week at age 47 in the prison where he was serving a 19-year sentence for extremism. With just one month left before a presidential election in which Putin is nearly guaranteed to win, the pro-democracy opposition movement in Russia is more beleaguered than ever.

Guest: Joshua Yaffa, contributing writer at The New Yorker and the author of Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia.

The Failed Coup in Russia

For months, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has been railing against his own country’s military leadership. It all came to a head this weekend – when the mercenary leader gathered his troops, took over a Russian city, and started to march towards Moscow. Then – as suddenly as it began – it stopped. Russia says Prigozhin has fled to Belarus, and his troops will all be granted amnesty. But an independent Russian journalist in exile doubts the official narrative, and speculates on Vladimir Putin’s future..

Guest: Mikhail Zygar, Russian journalist and author of the upcoming book, “War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine”

POLITICAL WRAP: President Biden to Meet with Russian President Putin

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Wednesday, President Biden will wrap up his first international trip as president, with a highly anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Sunday, Biden said he agrees with Putin that relations between the U.S. and Russia are at a “low point.”

Mary C. Curtis: Russia Bounty Allegations

CHARLOTTE, NC — What did the president know?

That’s the question lawmakers want answered– after reports that U.S. intelligence found out Russians offered a bounty if Taliban terrorists killed U.S. and British troops in Afghanistan.

The white house says the president was never briefed on the plot.

Here’s WCCB political contributor Mary C. Curtis.

President Trump’s Walk-back

CNN – Donald Trump did something he rarely does — admit a mistake. The President has been taking a pounding from both sides of the political aisle over his comments during the Helsinki, Finland, summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. So Trump tried some cleanup at the White House, now saying he misspoke when he said, “I don’t see any reason why it would be” Russia that interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

Reading prepared remarks to reporters in the Cabinet Room, Trump said, “The sentence should have been: ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.” He also said he accepted the US intelligence community’s conclusion that the Russians meddled in the election, something he wouldn’t do while standing right next to Putin on Monday. But even this came with a caveat from Trump: “It could be other people also.”

Trump’s Crucial Meetings with NATO and Putin

CHARLOTTE, NC — While in the U.S. a judge orders the Trump administration to speed up the unification of parents and children separated at the border, and both political parties gear up for a contentious fight over a Supreme Court nominee, the president heads overseas. But it won’t be a vacation; instead he will have crucial meetings with allies and Russia. This is against a backdrop of Trump’s sharp critiques of allies and warm words for Putin.

Opinion: Putin’s Job Is Easy When Americans Do It for Him

Russian president Vladimir Putin easily cruised to a fourth term this past weekend, surprising absolutely no one. The only nail-biters were how many people would head to the polls — always unpredictable when the victor is certain — and how completely Putin would trounce the token opposition. Now, presumably, the newly re-elected leader can turn his attention to meddling in elections in other countries.

Speaking of the United States, while both Democrats and Republicans would prefer a little more predictability in the November midterms, if not Russian-style oversight, it is members of the GOP who seem most nervous about the eventual outcomes, especially in close House races. And while the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity was officially disbanded in January, its spirit lingers on in hints from officials that certain votes should count more than others.