Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am conscious we are limited in what we can do but the Russian people are suffering as a result of this regime. Historically, I do not think any people have suffered as much as the Russian people. They had 300 years of the tsars and the Romanovs, then they had 70 years of deranged Marxist-Leninists who controlled their thoughts and their operation, and that has been followed by 25 years of a dictator. We are limited in what we can do. All we can do is express our support for political opposition. People have to be allowed to express political opposition. It is great to be part of a country in which we have vigorous opposition and political debate. When you get to the stage where a political leader is not prepared to hear opposition, let alone countenance opposition taking control, that is when we have to speak against it. All we can do, and I commend the Tánaiste on doing it, is speak out and remind people of it. We live in a world of so many atrocities and issues of concern that people like Alexei Navalny can be forgotten about unless people in this House raise his case.

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