Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny predicted his death in prison in his memoirs

Upon his return to Russia in January 2021, after a serious poisoning, the anti-corruption activist was immediately arrested. He died in a Russian jail in February.

“I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here”wrote Alexeï Navalny in March 2022, according to extracts published Friday October 11 from the posthumous memoirs of Vladimir Putin’s number one opponent, who died in a Russian jail in February.

“There will be no one to say goodbye to (…) All the birthdays will be celebrated without me. I will never see my grandchildren. I will not be the subject of any family history. I will not be in no photo”adds Alexeï Navalny on March 22, 2022, in this prison newspaper, extracts of which were published by the magazine The New Yorkerbefore publication in bookstores on October 22.

Upon his return to Russia in January 2021, after a serious poisoning, the anti-corruption activist was immediately arrested. He was serving a 19-year prison sentence for “extremism” in a penal colony in the Arctic when he died at the age of 47 on February 16. “The only thing we should fear is abandoning our homeland to the plundering of a bunch of liars, thieves and hypocrites”he wrote on January 17, 2022.

In the extracts, where traits of humor emerge despite the solitude and confinement, the opponent recounts, on July 1, 2022, a typical day: getting up at 6 a.m., breakfast at 6:20 a.m. and start of work at 6:40 a.m. .

“At work, you sit for seven hours at the sewing machine, on a stool lower than knee height”he describes. “After work, you continue to sit for a few hours on a wooden bench under a portrait of Putin. This is called ‘disciplinary activity'”describes Alexeï Navalny.