In a development that would not seem out of place in a John le Carré novel, a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin has been executed on Polish soil. The victim, a Russian dissident who had sought refuge in Warsaw, was found dead in what Polish authorities are calling a targeted assassination. This act of extrajudicial murder, orchestrated by the Kremlin’s long arm, signals a disturbing escalation in Russia’s campaign of intimidation and violence against its perceived enemies abroad.
Let us be blunt: this is not merely a crime. This is a declaration. Putin, in his paranoid delusions of imperial resurgence, has decided that no corner of Europe is safe for those who dare to speak against him. We are witnessing the degradation of international norms that began with the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London, continued with the Skripal affair in Salisbury, and now culminates in the cold-blooded murder of a man who sought only the protection of a democratic state. The parallels to the Roman Empire’s use of proscription lists are undeniable: the state, in its infinite wisdom, declares you an enemy, and death follows.
But what is most alarming is the intellectual and moral decadence that allows such acts to be met with little more than perfunctory outrage. Our leaders, obsessed with the rituals of diplomacy and the preservation of trade links, seem incapable of grasping the gravity of the moment. The EU prattles on with new sanctions, yet the Kremlin laughs, for it knows that our resolve is as brittle as the parchment on which these directives are written. We have become decadent, soft, unwilling to confront the reality that a new Iron Curtain is descending not with a bang but with a whimper.
National identity itself is at stake here. If Poland, a nation that embodies the spirit of resistance against tyranny, cannot protect those who seek refuge within its borders, then what hope is there for the rest of us? The West is sleepwalking into a crisis of legitimacy. We trade our values for cheap Russian gas and pretend that the blood of dissidents does not stain our hands. It does. Every cowardly gesture of appeasement, every half-hearted condemnation, is a nail in the coffin of the post-war order.
The lesson from history is clear: empires that ignore the first signs of decay crumble. The Roman Republic fell not to barbarians at the gate but to the erosion of its civic virtues. We are witnessing a similar collapse today. The assassination in Poland is a test, and so far, we are failing it. The question is not whether the Kremlin will escalate further; it is whether we will finally muster the fortitude to respond in kind, with honour and resolve, or continue our pathetic descent into irrelevance.
We must act. Not with tweets or statements, but with the courage of our convictions. Offer asylum to every Russian dissident. Strengthen our intelligence operations. Make it clear that the murder of a critic is an act of war, and respond accordingly. Otherwise, we might as well hand Europe to the czar's successor and be done with it.
