A top former US diplomat in Russia has warned that President Biden is thinking of 1930s Europe following the death of opposition diplomat Alexei Navalny.
It comes as the President held a press conference where he said that there was "no doubt that the death of Nalvany was a consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did."
Now, former US Senior Defense Official and Attache to Russia Peter Zwack has spoken to GB News about President Biden's reaction to the news from Russia.
He said that there were multiple factors in the press conference but added that Navalny "did not have to die."
President Biden held a press conference after the announcement of the death of Navalny
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Speaking in reaction to today's speech, he told GB News: "President Biden, I think he's a historian. He's been around a long time. He worries that aspects of history, while they don't necessarily repeat themselves, they provide a guide post.
"I think he's thinking of feelings of the late 1930s in Europe. I think there's feelings of 1913 in Europe. There are feelings also of where did the bump, the positiveness come after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War and the fall of the USSR.
"We have a lot going on. The fact is we have multiple issues going on regarding national security and our alliances in Russia. The death of Alexi Navaly did not have to happen.
"First of all, the fact that it happened in a Russian prison near the arctic where he was by all accounts, unjustly imprisoned is just confirms the nature of the Putin regime and what we are all dealing with as we see manifested in Ukraine."
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Alexi Navalny's death was announced earlier today
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He added: "This is a key issue for President Biden in the United States and in the UK and the rest of Nato. Biden is pulling together threads that we're hearing from the Munich security conference that's going on."
When asked whether Biden's comments that Navalny's death was "Shocking but not surprising" would be shared with other world leaders, Zwack said: "I think realistically everybody thought Navalny's days were numbered. It was more an issue of how and when.
"They were never going to let him out as long as he could be an electoral threat.
"He was either going to rot away in prison or he was going to die. The question was was it natural causes up in the Arctic circle or was accelerated. Nobody knows but you know what, it doesn't matter."
He added: "The regime is still responsible. A prisoner in their custody who is of high interest died. And they never had a great justification for his initial imprisonment.
"He was destined to perish in prison as long as the Putin regime was in place. Maybe it should be seen as a wake up call. It's shaking countries."
