Thanks to the letters that Alexeï Navalny regularly sends to his lawyer – and which are then published on his Instagram account – we know almost everything about his conditions of detention in the penal colony of Pokrov, about a hundred kilometers from Moscow.
In this diary with scathing humor, the opponent recounts his daily life between absurdities and humiliations, strip searches, sleep deprivation. During a conference in October 2021, at the Paris city hall, the actor Matthieu Amalric lent him his voice.
In his writings, Navalny does not stop making fun of power. While his old videos, which expose elite corruption, continue to spread his message. The documentary (subtitled in French) he made on Vladimir Putin’s colossal palace in the Black Sea, a residence worth several hundred million euros, has even become the most watched video on YouTube in Russia: 121 million views. His poisoning will soon be at the heart of a documentary by American television channels CNN and HBO Max.
Sentenced to three and a half years (with the house arrest he had been subjected to, he had two and a half years left to serve on the date of his conviction), the 2021 Sakharov Prize is released next year. Just before the 2024 presidential election (for which he is still declared ineligible).
But his release remains theoretical: in the meantime the prosecution has launched other procedures against him. Among other things for money laundering and financing of terrorist activities. Cases fabricated from scratch according to NGOs, for which he risks up to ten additional years in prison.
Demonstration today in Paris in front of the Saint-Michel fountain, to demand the release of Alexei #Navalny a year after his arrest in #Russia. #freeNavalny with @KatiaMRoux @amnestyfrance @NTenzer @MEltchaninoff pic.twitter.com/dwnYHTk6pY
— Russia-Freedoms (@Rus_Lib) January 16, 2022
And the steamroller advances. His anti-corruption foundation, FBK, was ranked “extremist organization“; justice even has the right to prosecute its former members, who were part of it when it was legal. Two relatives of Navalny, refugees abroad, even joined the list of “terrorists and extremists” a few days ago. , which already features the Taliban and the Islamic State.”Russian authorities orchestrated a ruthless campaign against Alexei Navalny“, Amnesty International already said in January 2021, “a determination to silence an important voice of the opposition“.
Beyond the Navalny case, moreover, critical voices are increasingly under pressure in Russia. NGOs or media that do not support the Kremlin line are referred to as “foreign agents”, which makes their day-to-day work extremely complicated. Last December, the NGO Memorial, a pillar of the defense of human rights and a guardian of the memory of the victims of the Gulag, was thus dissolved by the Russian courts for not having respected its obligations to“foreign agent”.
This repression is also illustrated on the internet: Russia is increasingly punishing large digital companies, especially foreign ones, accused of not deleting content linked to the opposition. Artists, bloggers, lawyers, scientists are subject to threats and legal harassment. Last week, it was a turn of events, it was a renowned humorist, Viktor Chenderovitch, screenwriter of the equivalent of Info horns, who left Russia for fear of prosecution. Like him, in recent months, dozens have been forced into exile.