I would not trust Bret Stephens with advice on Russia, seeing that he knows as much about Russia as I do about molecular physics. Bret Stephens advised by Bill Browder is off the charts. Of course I am as outraged as anyone with Navalny's poisoning. https://twitter.com/ARVershbow/status/1302623403048923139

But atrocities are also perpetrated by China on an arguably much greater scale. There are many other hideous regimes, some of them US allies: will the "Navalny act" target them, too? If yes, I'd be content. If not, I'd be worried because you can't apply morality selectively.

Second point, I honestly doubt the US presently has sufficient gravitas to force German companies to stop business with the Russians on Nordstream. The fallout for this for US-German relations would be very grave (Iran was a joke in comparison). CoCom is not in the cards.

Third point, the idea behind these measures, even as their instigators must recognise, would be mainly to signal dissatisfaction, not change behaviour. Does anyone actually believe Putin will be deterred? (I don't). We'll see another spiral of hostility, and then what.

On US propaganda against Russia. My firm conviction is that the best US propaganda against Russia is to address its vast domestic problems. It always was the case and it is still the case. Malaise in the US - lately in the literal sense - won't help with winning hearts and minds.

This doesn't mean that Putin should be let off the hook. His and his cronies' cash should be targeted but only - *only* - in the context of broader multilateral measures to tackle corruption and dirty money in the West. In the end, it's not about Russia. It's about corruption.

Secondly, and here I fully agree with @leonidvolkov, the West should signal that Putin personally is what the Russians call "nerukopozhatnyi," i.e. that is denied the facility of summits and meetings with Western counterparts. This should long have been done, before Navalny.

That, too, raises questions. If Putin is out, then what about the Erdogans, the bin Salmans, the (OMG) Xi Jinpings. All of these difficult issues are perhaps too complex to be answered in the context of a single NYT op-ed.