House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the United States and its allies must take action against the "aggression" of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine and the Baltics, but not necessarily in the form of a foreign aid package.
Johnson released a crafted statement Friday in the aftermath of the death — some are calling it murder — of imprisoned Putin critic Alexei Navalny. Johnson was already the center of attention over a $95.3 billion foreign aid package that passed in the Senate 70-29 earlier this week, one he said this week the House will not be "rushed" into acting on.
"As international leaders are meeting in Munich, we must be clear that Putin will be met with united opposition," Johnson said in a Friday statement. "As Congress debates the best path forward to support Ukraine, the United States, and our partners, must be using every means available to cut off Putin's ability to fund his unprovoked war in Ukraine and aggression against the Baltic states."
Friday's announcement of Navalny's death at a Russian penal colony north of the Arctic Circle sparked global outrage at Putin, whom world leaders strongly suspect was behind it. Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said the opposition politician Navalny was "brutally murdered."
President Joe Biden said Friday that "Putin is responsible for Navalny's death."
"We don't know exactly what happened, but there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was a consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did," Biden said at the White House.
A handful of Senate Republicans — and Democrats, of course — used Navalny's death as another call for Johnson and the House to move on the aid package, which includes $60 billion for Ukraine. But with no border security provisions in the Senate's bill, which came after a failed attempt to get Biden's supplemental aid plus immigration bill out of the Senate, Johnson said the House will "work its own will."
"Perhaps I get more fired up about what's going on in America not because I believe it's worse than Russia or any other country, but because it's my home," Sen. J.D. Vance said in a post to X.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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