Fiona Hill

He was just going to have the acclaim of, you know, the kind of the great leader, like President Xi in China.

You know, Putin, you know, was basically, I think, you know, he also hoped that he would be able to devolve some authority away, you know, kind of, so he's more like the,

You know, the supreme leader kind of figure, the Tsar-like figure, the monarch.

And then, you know, other people get on with the chief executive, prime ministerial run of the country.

And he could kind of like step back and just enjoy this.

You know, maybe there was going to be again a new union of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine in some fashion.

And he would preside over that.

Well, it hasn't really been a kind of a criticism in the way that people have implied, but more just reminding people that Navalny isn't some stooge of the West, as other people have kind of depicted him in the Russian firm, but saying that this is kind of, he's pro-Western.

He's a Russian nationalist.

and a Russian patriot.

In the past, he's articulated things are not so dissimilar from some of the people around Putin.

And it's more just reminding people that just because you kind of see somebody

you know, as a kind of in an opposition figure or somebody who might be more palatable from, you know, your perspective looking from the West, they're not always going to be, you know, what you think they are.

Alexei Navalny is a Russian.

And, you know, in a particular Russian context, he's different from Putin, but he wouldn't necessarily, you know, kind of run, you know, the Russian system in ways that we will like.

So that's kind of, it's not a kind of a criticism.

It's more of a critique of the way that we look at things.

You know, I think it's a mistake to always, you know, say, oh, this is pro-Western or this is a, you know, liberal.

I mean, what the heck does that mean, pro-Western?

I mean, he's a Russian.