“I will die hereforgotten by everyone, and I will be buried in an unmarked grave,” we can read in the diary of Alexeï Navalny, the main opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.. He began writing his stories on January 17, 2022, anticipating what his death would be like in certain texts, which will see the light of day in book form. Patriotwhich Península Editions publishes in Spain on October 23. Meanwhile, all over the world they will be released this month on different dates. »My family will be informed that “by law, the burial location cannot be revealed.” (…). I am 45 years old. I have family and children. “I had a life, I worked on interesting things, I did useful things,” Alexeï Navalny continues in the text.
Why did you return to Russia? “For three years, I have been answering the same question. The prisoners phrase it in a simple and direct manner. » Prison officials ask cautiously, the recording devices being turned off. “Why did you come back?” In answering this question, I feel frustrated in two ways. First of all, there is dissatisfaction with myself for not having been able to find the right words so that everyone understands me and puts an end to this incessant questioning. Secondly, “I am frustrated by the political panorama of recent decades in Russia”, we can read.
“This scenario has implanted cynicism and conspiracy theories so deeply into society that people fundamentally distrust direct motivations.”. They seem to believe that if they come back, there must have been a deal. It just didn’t work. Or maybe he hasn’t done it yet. There is a hidden plan regarding the Kremlin towers. There must be a secret hidden beneath the surface. Because in politics, nothing is as simple as it seems. But there are no secrets or twisted meanings. It’s all that simple. I have my country and my beliefs. I don’t want to abandon my country or betray it. If your beliefs mean anything, you must be willing to stand up for them and make sacrifices if necessary,” the text reads.
Vladimir Putin. “They live like Putin and Medvedev. At least that’s what I think when I look at the fence surrounding my barracks. Everyone has the usual fence and inside there are bars for drying clothes. But I have a six-meter-high fence, the type I only saw during our investigations of Putin’s and Medvedev’s palaces. Putin lives and works in such a place, in Novo-Ogaryovo or Sochi. And I live in a similar place. Putin lets ministers sit in the waiting room for six hours, and my lawyers have to wait five or six hours to see me. I have a speaker in my barracks that plays songs like Glory to the FSB and I think Putin has one too. But that’s where the similarities end,” we can read in his diary, taken from the magazine’s preview. The New Yorkerr.
On January 17, 2021, Alexei and his wife Yulia returned to Moscow. Navalny was arrested at the airport after leaving Russia after being poisoned. On August 20, 2020, during a flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk to Moscow, Russian opponent and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny felt unwell. The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk and Navalny was hospitalized. Two days later he was transferred to Berlin for treatment. He had been poisoned with a deadly nerve agent called Novichok.. Nanvlny was in a coma until September 7. A week after coming out of the coma, he announced his intention to return to Russia soon. He was arrested upon his return on January 12, 2021.
Despite international protests, Navalny has been accused of embezzlement, fraud and extremism, among other charges. After being in several prison cells and solitary confinement, in late 2023 he was transferred to the special regime colony known as Polar Wolf, north of the Arctic Circle. In captivity, he continued the journal he had started in Germany while recovering from his poisoning, and even had his team publish some texts on social media. Alexei Navalny died on February 16, 2024, just weeks before the Russian presidential election which he won. Vladimir Putin by an overwhelming majority.
