human rights defender Lev Ponomarev hails ‘a true hero’ and calls on Russians to revolt

The co-founder of the Russian NGO Memorial, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, lives in exile in France. The death of the Russian opponent does not surprise him.

Many questions are still unanswered after the death in prison of Alexei Navalny. After the announcement of his death on Friday, the family of the opponent of Vladimir Putin still does not know where his body is and the causes of death remain unclear. Which does not surprise historical opponents of the Kremlin, such as Lev Ponomarev, human rights defender and co-founder of the Russian NGO Memorial who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

He himself was threatened with imprisonment and has been living in exile in France for a year and a half. When his NGO received the Nobel Peace Prize, Lev Ponomarev declared that this prize should have been awarded directly to Russian political prisoners and he cited Alexei Navalny. When he learned of her death on Friday, he was not surprised : “I admit that I expected it a little. I expected that we would get rid of him. The first thing I said to myself when I found out was that this man is a real hero , the one that we will study in history books later, because he will be a historical character for Russia.”

Alexei Navalny “was killed, it’s obvious”

No surprise either regarding the mystery surrounding the remains of the political opponent and around the causes of his death. “That doesn’t surprise me at all.continues Lev Ponomarev. As someone who for a long time defended prisoners, not even political ones, I tell you, this is a very common practice. Families are also forced to sign false papers and official refusals to recover the body. But in Navalny’s case, they will have no choice and will have to return it. But yes, I think he was killed, that’s obvious.”

Exiled thousands of kilometers from his country, Lev Ponomarev greets his compatriots who have taken to the streets in recent hours to demonstrate. For him, sanctions and the indignation of the international community will not be enough, it is up to Russian civil society to revolt: “For the moment, that’s not enough. But the repetition, the frequency of these small demonstrations, especially during the presidential election next month, that’s important.”

“All these small movements demonstrate Putin’s non-legitimacy and gradually, I hope that those around him will realize this and will rule him out.”

Lev Ponomarev, co-founder of the Russian NGO Memorial

at franceinfo

This will take time, perhaps years, Lev Ponomarev is aware of this. He, who is 82 years old, maintains the hope of one day seeing his country again: a Russia without Putin “or with Putin behind bars”, he smiles. In the meantime, he is leading the fight from Paris where he founded the Andrei Sakharov Institute to defend human rights.