Major Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall in Florida, bringing with it devastating storm surge, winds, and inland flooding. The Seminole Tribe of Florida should have access to the federal resources required for emergency response and recovery preparations on...
Major Hurricane Milton is forecasted to potentially hinder or obstruct the Port of Tampa Bay, which receives more than 40 percent of Florida’s petroleum products. It’s crucial for the federal government to expedite all requested measures to protect Florida’s economy...
Major Hurricane Milton is forecasted to impact Florida with devastating storm surge, winds, and inland flooding. After just being hit by Hurricane Helene, it’s crucial for the State of Florida to have the support of the federal government. U.S. Senators Marco Rubio...
This year marks the first anniversary of the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks against Israel. 32 Americans died in those attacks, and four of the Americans taken hostage that day remain in captivity. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) released a video remembering the...
Following Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic damage throughout Florida’s gulf coast, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) met with the Florida Farm Bureau as well as local agricultural producers, farmers, and growers to discuss the storm’s impact. Photos are courtesy of...
Following Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic damage throughout Florida’s Gulf Coast, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) met with local officials and volunteers from the barrier islands to discuss the storm’s impact and current recovery efforts. Photos are courtesy of...
Alexei Navalny’s Death Is a Loss for Russia and the World
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
February 21, 2024
…For more than 10 years, [Alexei] Navalny openly opposed the Russian dictator, calling out the “crooks and thieves” in the Kremlin who enabled his corrupt reign. Navalny knew exactly what the consequences for his dissent might be…. Still, he continued to press for change in Russia, because he loved his country more than his own life….
In 2020, Putin tried to poison Navalny…. What followed, however, was even more remarkable: Navalny decided to re-enter Russia the following year…. This courage didn’t go to waste. I met with Russian opposition figures in 2022, and even though the Kremlin had just arrested both Navalny and anti-authoritarian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, I could tell that the Russian people’s aspirations for freedom were alive and well….
I’m sure the Kremlin feels more secure with their chief domestic opponents gone…. But that just shows the weakness of authoritarian governments. Navalny, for one, saw politics more clearly than Putin. His prediction that the dictator’s closed, fear-based system would reap degradation for Russia proved devastatingly accurate, as the war in Ukraine continues to take thousands of lives and waste trillions of rubles.
What would the world look like if Putin had listened to his opponents rather than his yes-men? What would it look like if other authoritarians did the same…? Such a world would be safer for West-aligned democracies…. But it would also be a better world for the people of Russia, Venezuela, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea, Iran, and so many other countries.
That dictators like Putin prefer this world to that one reveals their great tragedy—that their ultimate goal is not their nations’ well-being, but self-preservation and self-aggrandizement. Alexei Navalny…was different. He put his nation first, up till the bitter end…. [W]e could use more people like him.