I will die here • KosovaPress

I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here, wrote Alexeï Navalny two years before his death in a Russian prison in February 2024, according to the first published extracts from the memoirs of Vladimir Putin’s fiercest opponent.“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 be on every photo,” Navalni said. » wrote on March 22, 2022 in his prison diary, parts of which were published by the New Yorker and the London Times. The contents of the entire journal will be available to the public on October 22. The book titled “Patriot” will be “a souvenir and a souvenir for me,” the Russian dissident writes. American publisher Knopf said a Russian version of its newspaper was also planned. Upon his return to Russia in January 2021, after the serious poisoning, this activist and anti-corruption fighter was immediately arrested. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison for “extremism”. He was placed in an Arctic penal colony, where he died on February 16 at the age of 47.

“The only thing we should be afraid of is leaving our homeland in the hands of a bunch of liars, thieves and hypocrites,” he wrote on January 17, 2022.

In one passage he describes a typical day in a penal colony. It’s July 1, 2022: “Get up at 6 a.m., eat breakfast at 6:20 a.m., and start work at 6:40 a.m. » At work, you sit at a sewing machine for seven hours and the chair is lower than your knees. After work, you continue to sit for several hours on a wooden bench under Putin’s portrait, this is called ‘disciplinary activity’,” Navalny describes. He also talks about his hunger strike in April 2021, which made him lose a kilo every day. The door to the prison kitchen, where the chicken and bread are cooked, was “deliberately left open” so that their smell could reach them. And they regularly put candy in their pockets.

On April 11, 2021, Alexeï Navalny “felt for the first time that he was morally at his lowest point”. But just a few days later, international support, “among them five Nobel Prize winners and even JK Rowling”, gave it new momentum and new energy. His death sparked unanimous condemnation in almost all Western capitals, and many leaders pointed the finger at Putin.

For David Remnick, editor-in-chief of the New Yorker, “it is impossible to read Navalny’s prison diary without being outraged by the tragedy of his suffering and death.”In the latest newspaper published by the New Yorker on January 17, 2024, it is written that among other prisoners and some prison officials, the question is constantly asked: why did he return to Russia? Navalny responds: “I don’t want to leave my country or betray it. If your beliefs matter to you, you must be prepared to defend them and, if necessary, make sacrifices.”

Although he is alone and in prison, Navalny’s mood shows on several occasions. For example, when he explains why he writes his diary or his book. “If they kill me, my family will receive an advance and a royalty,” he explains.

“If a failed chemical assassination attempt followed by a tragic prison death fails to sell a book, it’s hard to imagine what could. The book’s author was assassinated by a notorious president. What could he want instead of a marketing department? These words still resonate eight months after his death.