“Hope is dead”: in Moscow, young Russians say they are shocked and distraught on Friday after the death of Vladimir Putin’s main opponent, Alexeï Navalny, who symbolizes the disappearance of the dream of change in the country.
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“I’m trembling! I feel such emotions as if I had lost a parent,” reacts to AFP Maria, a 22-year-old computer scientist who, like the other people interviewed, prefers not to give her last name.
She underlines “a great loss for the entire Russian opposition”, a “tragedy”.
If Alexeï Navalny, the Kremlin’s sworn enemy, had been locked up in prison since his return to Russia at the beginning of 2021, he nevertheless represented for part of the population the distant hope of an end to authoritarianism and the era Poutine.
The charismatic anti-corruption activist was especially popular with young people in big cities, like Moscow, where he came second in the 2013 municipal election, the last one in which he was allowed to run.
He died Friday in an Arctic prison where he had recently been transferred, according to authorities.
“We hope it’s not true. To be honest, it’s hard to believe. Thinking about what will happen next is scary, what the State can do to its citizens,” laments Marc, an 18-year-old student.
Valeria is a tourist guide. For this 28-year-old woman, Alexeï Navalny was “a symbol of hope for a better future for Russia”. “I have the impression that with his death, this hope also dies,” she laments.
“If this hope was still present in one way or another, it is now even weaker,” continues the young woman.
After almost a quarter of a century of Vladimir Putin’s power and two years of conflict with Ukraine, “many people will give up, because people always need a symbol in any form of resistance”, believes- she said.
The death of Mr. Navalny after a poisoning for which he accused the Kremlin and three years of detention deprives an already bloodless opposition of its figurehead. Almost all of the protest figures are behind bars or in exile abroad.
“I still can’t believe it, but if it’s true, it’s a personal tragedy for me and for many people I know,” Arthur, a 27-year-old student, told AFP.
For him as for many others of his generation, “Navalny represented a certain image of positive changes in the future, of future reforms that can bring us to better conditions than we have.”
Arthur even says he is “angry” and feels the “desire to leave”.
Russia has experienced an exodus that is difficult to quantify since the start of the assault in Ukraine and the partial military mobilization decreed in September 2022 by Vladimir Putin. These are often young, educated people living in big cities: Navalny’s audience.
“We no longer believe in the possibility of change for the better,” laments Arthur.