His lawyers and his relatives had not heard from him for almost three weeks: Russia’s best-known political prisoner reappeared on December 25, 3,000 km northeast of Moscow. Alexeï Navalny, who is serving a 19-year prison sentence for extremism, is in a penal colony in the Russian Arctic, in a particularly remote region with difficult living conditions. According to his first statements, the number one opponent of the Kremlin remains combative. (Reworked version of the European of the week of January 29, 2023)
“ I am your new Santa »: these are the words that begin Alexeï Navalny’s message, posted at the start of the week on his social networks. The opponent recounts, with his style full of humor and sarcasm, his transfer to his new penal colony beyond the polar circle, where when he looks out the window, he says he only sees “ night, and then evening, and night again “.
He has, it seems, lost none of his bite and determination that he displayed on January 17, 2021 upon his arrival at Moscow airport: “ I am not afraid of anything and I also ask you not to be afraid. Thank you very much, now let’s go to passport control “. Barely passed passport control, returning from his convalescence in Germany, five months after his imprisonment, Alexeï Navalny was arrested by police officers and immediately placed in detention.
Russian human rights defender Lev Ponomarev of the Sakharov Institute in Paris: “ He did a heroic act by deciding to return to Russia, because he is, of course, Vladimir Putin’s personal opponent. As long as he survives “.
Vladimir Putin’s personal prisoner
If prison violence is not a rare occurrence in Russia, Alexeï Navalny, the man whose name Vladimir Putin refuses to pronounce, seems to be entitled to special treatment, according to political scientist Fedor Krasheninnikov: “ He is Vladimir Putin’s personal prisoner, he is his “iron mask”. The Russian president considers Navalny a member of the Western elite. Angela Merkel came to see him when he was in hospital. And as in his imagination, he is seen as part of the Western clan, he harasses him, a bit like a voodoo doll “.
In his prison at severe diet » in the Vladimir region, 250 km from the capital, Alexeï Navalny was regularly sent to a disciplinary or solitary cell for minor infractions of the regulations, such as having washed his morning 36 minutes before the prescribed time. Thin, visibly affected by these days spent in the prison, Alexeï Navalny continued to fight to have his most basic rights recognized, by filing lawsuits against the prison administration. He takes advantage of these hearings to launch political messages, like here against the war in Ukraine: “ You won’t silence me with your solitary confinement cell. Putin associates hundreds of thousands of people with the crimes he commits. He is like the mafia, which binds hundreds of thousands of people to it by blood “.
The most serious opponent of Vladimir Putin continues to exist politically, even from the depths of his prison, believes another detractor of the Russian president, who preferred to flee Russia to avoid the fate of Alexeï Navalny, the former deputy Dmitri Gudkov: “ By continuing to remain active despite all obstacles, he shows his supporters that he continues to resist against all odds, and this gives hope to many people. “.
Optimism as a way to continue the fight
Not to be forgotten, to continue to exist beyond the Arctic Circle: a challenge for Alexeï Navalny, who until then managed to regularly provide news of his life behind bars, in messages transmitted by his lawyers.
For its most active activists, who had to choose between prison and exile, the opponent’s behavior remains a source of inspiration. This is the case for Fedor Krasheninkov: “ He has the qualities of a political leader and even in the situation he is experiencing today, he tries to resist, because he understands that if he started writing that he is not doing well, that he is depressed, he would not improve his lot and he would destroy the faith of his supporters. Even while in prison, he strives to display optimism to show people that they must continue the fight “.
Alexeï Navalny is preparing to spend his third December 31 behind bars. “ People pay to have an original New Year, for me it was free », he wrote last year after a night spent in solitary confinement.
Read alsoRussian opposition leader Navalny is in a penal colony in the Arctic