Alexei Navalny “does not regret a second” to have returned
The Russian opponent, arrested on January 17, 2021 at Moscow airport, spoke on social networks on Monday, encouraging the population to “not be afraid”.
Alexei Navalny was also in court again on Monday, this time to examine two complaints he filed against the prison administration. (File photo)
Babuskinsky District Court Press Service via AP
Russian opponent Alexei Navalny said on Monday, a year to the day after his arrest, that he did not “regret for a second” to have returned to Russia and called on his fellow citizens to “not be afraid”.
“After a year in prison, I tell you what I shouted to those (who supported me then) in court: do not be afraid”, said the opponent, whose messages on the networks are broadcast. regularly.
Back in court again
His post on Monday is accompanied by a photo of him in prison uniform with his wife, Yulia.
Alexei Navalny was also in court again on Monday, this time to examine two complaints he filed against the prison administration.
The Petushki district court in the Vladimir region, where the opponent is imprisoned, examined the two files at the end of the morning.
Alexei Navalny participated in the first hearing by video link, locked in a cage, according to images from the independent online channel Dojd.
Poisoning in Siberia
He was arrested on January 17, 2021 at a Moscow airport, on his return from convalescence in Germany after a serious poisoning in Siberia in August for which he holds President Vladimir Putin responsible.
Russia has never opened an investigation into this assassination attempt, claiming to have no clues to this effect and accusing Berlin of not sharing the opponent’s medical analyzes.
Two and a half years in prison
This militant defender of the corruption of the Russian elites was then given a sentence of two and a half years in prison for a case of “fraud” which he describes as political.
This condemnation sparked a torrent of international condemnations and new Western sanctions against Moscow.
One of his lieutenants who now lives in exile, Leonid Volkov, estimated on social networks that January 17 “will go down in history as the beginning of the end of Putinism”.
The arrest of Alexeï Navalny had triggered several large demonstrations a year ago, but they had quickly and brutally been repressed.
Then it was his movement that was banned for extremism, while opponents, media and NGOs deemed critical of the Kremlin suffered a growing wave of repression.
Alexei Navalny is also the target of new prosecutions, in particular for “extremism”, which could allow him to be kept in prison for many years.
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