Hello from Washington. I'm Chuck Todd. And this is the Chuck Todd cast. So we got a lot of questions surrounding the death of Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin's most formidable opponent.

They continued him out as his family tries and fails to gain access to his body.

Navalny died while in an Arctic prison.

Russia is going to be holding one of its so-called elections,

you've got to put those in air quotes,

in which Vladimir Putin will face no real opposition before he takes another six-year

term.

That will extend Putin's time and power to 31 years, finally passing Stalin's record.

Before we get started though on that topic, I do want to delve a little bit into the current

American political debate.

There is a growing consternation about Joe Biden's abilities to

do this. Does he have it? Do the voters trust that he has it? I do think it's fair to say the State of the Union is probably going to be

the most important speech he's given to date because he either puts all this to rest with

another performance like he did a year ago, or he doesn't, and the crescendo only grows, if you will,

when it comes to calls for him to step aside or something like that.

But it is pretty clear when you think about what's coming.

You have Super Tuesdays, March 5th.

Two days later is the State of the Union.

Five days after that, the Special Counsel, Mr. Hurr is going to be testifying

about his interview with Joe Biden and the transcript is likely going to be

public then. All of the focus on the president's abilities is going to dominate that week.

He, the single, easiest and best stage

...