2024-01-17 19:50:09
Published17. January 2024, 8:50 p.m
Alexei Navalny: 3 years in Russia’s camps – why did he just go back?
Three years ago today, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny returned to Russia after a poison attack, where he has been imprisoned ever since. He explains why he did this.
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Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny during a video call from the IK-3 penal colony above the Arctic Circle.
AFP
A view of an Orthodox church on the grounds of the N2 penal colony, where Navalny was first taken after his arrest three years ago.
AFP
Navalny was initially charged with violating the terms of a suspended sentence for embezzlement in 2014.
AFP
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Three years ago, Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny flew back to his homeland from Germany after the poison attack on him.
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He did this knowing that he would be imprisoned there immediately.
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On the third anniversary of his return to Russia, the 47-year-old explains his reasons.
Three years ago today, Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny returned to Russia from Germany after being treated for severe poisoning – and was immediately arrested at Moscow airport. The 47-year-old has been in prison ever since, even in Siberia since December.
Navalny wrote on the third anniversary of his return on the X platform (formerly Twitter) that he was often asked why he did not stay abroad. His answer to this is always: “I have my country and my beliefs.”
“Demands for a different leadership are not exotic, sectarian or radical.”
Alexei Navalny
Anyone who wants to stand up for this in Russia must be prepared to sit in solitary confinement if necessary. «Of course I don’t like being there. But I will not give up my ideas or my homeland.”
The Kremlin critic explained that President Vladimir Putin’s rule will end. His demand for a different leadership is not exotic, sectarian or radical. Anyone who has power must give it back. “The best way to elect a leader is through honest and free elections.”
As isolated as possible before election
After Navalny was treated in Germany for the consequences of a poison attack, he returned to Russia on January 17, 2021 and was arrested at the airport.
Last December, the politician, who was classified as a political prisoner, disappeared for several weeks. The justice system had moved him from the European part of Russia to a prison camp in the far north of Siberia. Navalny suspects that he should be as isolated as possible there before the upcoming presidential election in March.
In Brussels, the EU called for the immediate release of Navalny and other political prisoners in Russia to mark the anniversary.
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