Alexeï Navalny, the number 1 opponent, Oscar winner … but still in prison

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Physically, Alexeï Navalny is very tried, emaciated. He has had no visitors for eight months. Since he has been in detention (January 2021), he has been placed in solitary confinement around ten times. For often trivial reasons: either because a button on his shirt was open, or because he had washed “at 5.24 a.m.”, or 36 minutes before 6 a.m., the regular time. It was December 31.

>> Russia: imprisoned for two years, opponent Alexei Navalny believes that the country has been “transformed into a prison”

The situation had inspired him with this ironic remark, passed on to one of his lawyers and then published on social networks: “People pay to have an original New Year. For me, it was free”.

A replica of his cell is also installed from Tuesday March 14 in Paris, near the Louvre, after being exhibited for a month in Berlin. It’s a kind of box 2.50m by 3m, rusty sink, Turkish toilet and berth that turns into a table. With excerpts from the regulations broadcast at regular intervals by loudspeaker.

The man whose name the Russian president refuses to pronounce is apparently entitled to very special treatment. In January, 46-year-old Alexei Navalny fell ill with a bad flu. He was not properly cared for. To the point that people began to fear for his life: 500 Russian doctors even signed a petition asking Vladimir Putin to put an end to this ill-treatment. His supporters denounce a desire to kill him slowly, without breaking the law.

Judicial harassment

On the judicial level, he is the victim of the same relentlessness. He is currently serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and embezzlement, verdict widely seen in Russia as personal revenge by the master of the Kremlin.

But in October, he announced that he was facing new charges, including financing terrorist activities, an offense punishable by 30 years in prison. That doesn’t stop him from continuing to fight. In general, he takes advantage of his audiences to launch political messages and denounce the corruption of the elites.

“While at one end of the planet, Alexei Navalny is the favorite for the Oscars, at the other end, he is participating in hearings with Putin’s judges. Today there are three: a lawsuit for inappropriate association, a new lawsuit and a lawsuit for transfer of letters” says this account of “The Navalny team”.

Repression of the opposition

Alexeï Navalny is doing everything to continue to exist, as an activist and as a representative of the opposition, but the steamroller of power is stronger… His anti-corruption foundation has been classified “extremist organization“; all its members are today either in prison, or in exile, or else they are in hiding. In the eyes of a largely depoliticized Russian society, it simply no longer exists.

The opposition, more broadly, has come under increased repression since the invasion of Ukraine. Recent laws provide for long prison terms for various forms of “misdemeanors”, such as labeling the armed conflict in Ukraine as “gwar“, to criticize the invasion or the conduct of the Russian armed forces, and to report war crimes.

And the Oscar is unlikely to change anything. The reward of ddocumentary is hardly mentioned in the Moscow press. Not a word either about the words of his wife, Ioulia, who came to collect the prize in his place, the presence of his children and the speech of the director Daniel Roher. As the weekly points out International mailonly the major business daily Kommersant ventures to publish a photo, without commenting on the subject. The list of Alexei Navalny’s court convictions is featured prominently alongside a short presentation of the film.

Another longtime opponent, Vladimir Kara-Mourza (who also nearly died after being poisoned in 2015 and 2017), is also on trial this week for high treason. He had simply criticized the authorities in public interventions abroad. For this, he faces 25 years in prison. No voice resonates loud enough today to represent an alternative, neither in Russia nor outside the country.


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