The West must be prepared to face up to whatever threats Putin makes

With the death of Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin regime has abandoned any remaining pretence about its character

Undaunted by snipers on rooftops and riot police lining the streets, thousands gathered in Moscow yesterday for the funeral of Alexei Navalny. The Russian opposition leader died last month in suspicious circumstances in an Arctic penal colony at the age of 47, in a tragic development that will have shocked few but has galvanised many.
His name was chanted and applause could be heard as the hearse arrived outside the Soothe my Sorrows Church, offering glimmers of hope that the desire for democracy and freedom that Navalny represented has not been completely extinguished in Russia.
But the wider context is Vladimir Putin’s increasingly totalitarian rule. This week, Oleg Orlov, head of the human rights group Memorial, was also jailed for voicing his opposition to the Ukraine war. Even calling the conflict a “war” can lead to a prison sentence.
In recent months, the Russian president has abandoned any remaining pretence of behaving like a rational actor with whom the West can negotiate. Instead, the UK must be prepared for all eventualities. Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, wants defence spending to be increased to 2.5 per cent of GDP. As Britain faces its most hazardous geopolitical situation since the end of the Cold War, Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt will surely find it hard to disagree.
History has taught us that the only response to tyranny is to defeat it. Failure to bolster our woefully overstretched Armed Forces could leave us with little choice but to appease.