Russia’s late opposition chief Alexei Navalny believed he would die in jail, in line with excerpts from his memoir.
Mr Navalny was one in every of President Putin’s fiercest critics and relentlessly campaigned towards corruption within the Kremlin.
He died in a distant Arctic penal colony in February whereas serving a 19-year jail sentence on extremism expenses and at all times maintained the costs have been politically motivated.
Excerpts from his upcoming memoir, Patriot, have been launched by the New Yorker journal on Friday.
The guide has been described as his “final letter to the world” by its writer Alfred A Knopf.
Picture:
Alexei Navalny makes a coronary heart gesture whereas standing in a cage throughout a listening to in Moscow in 2021. Pic: AP
In an excerpt, Mr Navalny wrote that he would “imagine, as realistically as possible, the worst thing that could happen. And then… accept it”.
For him, the worst factor that might occur was dying in jail.
“I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here,” he wrote on 22 March 2022.
“There will not be anybody to say goodbye to… all anniversaries will be celebrated without me. I’ll never see my grandchildren.”
Though he accepted what would develop into his destiny, he did not settle for the issues he noticed in Russian society.
“My approach to the situation is certainly not one of contemplative passivity. I am trying to do everything I can from here to put an end to authoritarianism (or, more modestly, to contribute to ending it),” he wrote.
He was despatched to jail in 2021 after recuperating in Germany following a nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
Russian officers deny involvement each within the poisoning and his demise.
Picture:
Alexei Navalny and his spouse Yulia look on throughout a help rally in central Moscow in 2013. Pic: Reuters
Within the memoir, he mentioned folks had requested him why he returned to Russia from Germany following the poisoning.
“I don’t want to give up my country or betray it,” he wrote in response.
“If your convictions mean something, you must be prepared to stand up for them and make sacrifices if necessary.”
Mr Navalny labored on the guide whereas recovering from being poisoned after which continued writing in Russia, together with from jail, in line with Mr Knopf.
He marvelled within the guide in regards to the absurdity of getting to sit down for “hours on a wooden bench under a portrait of Putin” as a “disciplinary activity”.
In April, Yulia Navalnaya, Mr Navalny’s widow, mentioned the guide was not solely a testomony “to Alexei’s life, but to his unwavering commitment to the fight against dictatorship”.
She mentioned sharing his story would “inspire others to stand up for what is right and to never lose sight of the values that truly matter”, including the memoir was already translated into 11 languages and would “definitely” be revealed in Russian.
