International Courant
Russia’s most distinguished opposition chief for a decade, Alexei Navalny, believed he would die in jail, in keeping with his memoirs.
A fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, he died in an Arctic Circle jail in February whereas serving 19 years on extremism costs broadly seen as politically motivated.
The New Yorker and the Instances revealed excerpts from the guide, a posthumous account of Navalny’s remaining years, together with these he spent in jail.
“I’ll spend the remainder of my life in jail and die right here,” he wrote on March 22, 2022.
“There will likely be nobody to say goodbye to… All birthdays will likely be celebrated with out me. I’ll by no means see my grandchildren.”
Navalny’s loss of life earlier this yr was met with shock and anger from world wide, with tributes paid to his energy as a political campaigner.
Many blamed Mr Putin. Within the rapid aftermath, nonetheless, the Kremlin merely mentioned it was conscious he had died.
In August 2020, Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent on the finish of a visit to Siberia.
He started writing his memoirs, Patriot, whereas present process specialist remedy in Germany.
Recovered, he returned to Moscow in January 2021 and was instantly taken into custody.
Navalny spent the remaining 37 months of his life in jail, throughout which period he saved the diary entries he had collected in his memoirs.
On January 17, 2022, he wrote: “The one factor we’ve got to worry is that we are going to give up our homeland to be plundered by a gang of liars, thieves and hypocrites.”
The excerpts hint Navalny’s declining well being and seize the isolation of his captivity, with a contact of his attribute humor.
A couple of typical day on July 1, 2022, he wrote: “At work you sit on the stitching machine for seven hours on a stool under knee top.”
“After work you sit for just a few hours on a picket bench below a portrait of Putin. That is known as ‘disciplinary exercise’.”
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In its presentation of the exceptions, the New Yorker says that whereas in captivity, Navalny managed to get his staff to publish some diary entries on social media.
David Remnick, the journal’s editor, wrote that it was “inconceivable to learn Navalny’s jail diary with out being outraged by the tragedy of his struggling and by his loss of life.”
Within the remaining excerpt revealed in The New Yorker, dated January 17, 2024, Navalny says fellow prisoners and jail guards usually requested him why he had chosen to return to Russia.
The reply, Navalny writes, is straightforward: “I do not wish to surrender or betray my nation. In case your beliefs imply one thing, you have to be prepared to face up for them and make sacrifices if essential.”
Alexei Navalny is anticipated to die in Russian jail, his memoirs reveal
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