U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) office will host in-person and virtual Mobile Office Hours next week to assist constituents with federal casework issues in their respective local communities. These office hours offer constituents who do not live close to one of...
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Rubio Receives Democracy Award for Innovation and Modernization
Every year, the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) recognizes Members of Congress for their non-legislative achievements in operations, communications, and constituent services. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) was awarded the 2024 Democracy Award for...
Rubio sobre la Toma de Posesión del Presidente Panameño
El senador estadounidense Marco Rubio (R-FL) emitió el siguiente comunicado sobre la toma de posesión del presidente panameño José Mulino: “A principios de este año, tras un proceso electoral pacífico y democrático, el pueblo de Panamá eligió al Presidente José...
Rubio Statement on Panamanian President’s Inauguration
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued the following statement regarding the inauguration of Panamanian President José Mulino: “Earlier this year, following a peaceful and democratic electoral process, the people of Panama elected President José Mulino as their new...
Rubio on State Department’s 2023 International Religious Freedom Report
Each year, the U.S. Department of State releases to Congress its International Religious Freedom Report. This report highlights the status of religious freedom in countries worldwide. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued the following statement regarding the release...
Next Week: Rubio Staff Hosts Mobile Office Hours
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) office will host in-person and virtual Mobile Office Hours next week to assist constituents with federal casework issues in their respective local communities. These office hours offer constituents who do not live close to one of...
ICYMI: Rubio Pays Tribute to Alexei Navalny
Alexei Navalny’s Death Is a Loss for Russia and the World
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
February 21, 2024
…For more than 10 years, [Alexei] Navalny openly opposed the Russian dictator, calling out the “crooks and thieves” in the Kremlin who enabled his corrupt reign. Navalny knew exactly what the consequences for his dissent might be…. Still, he continued to press for change in Russia, because he loved his country more than his own life….
In 2020, Putin tried to poison Navalny…. What followed, however, was even more remarkable: Navalny decided to re-enter Russia the following year…. This courage didn’t go to waste. I met with Russian opposition figures in 2022, and even though the Kremlin had just arrested both Navalny and anti-authoritarian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, I could tell that the Russian people’s aspirations for freedom were alive and well….
I’m sure the Kremlin feels more secure with their chief domestic opponents gone…. But that just shows the weakness of authoritarian governments. Navalny, for one, saw politics more clearly than Putin. His prediction that the dictator’s closed, fear-based system would reap degradation for Russia proved devastatingly accurate, as the war in Ukraine continues to take thousands of lives and waste trillions of rubles.
What would the world look like if Putin had listened to his opponents rather than his yes-men? What would it look like if other authoritarians did the same…? Such a world would be safer for West-aligned democracies…. But it would also be a better world for the people of Russia, Venezuela, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea, Iran, and so many other countries.
That dictators like Putin prefer this world to that one reveals their great tragedy—that their ultimate goal is not their nations’ well-being, but self-preservation and self-aggrandizement. Alexei Navalny…was different. He put his nation first, up till the bitter end…. [W]e could use more people like him.