My friend Navalny

The news reaches the barracks of a prison camp slowly, and I only found out about Alexei Navalny's death yesterday.

It's hard to convey my shock.

It's hard to organize your ideas.

The pain and horror are unbearable.

Anyway, I won't stay silent.

I will say what I think is important.

I do not ask myself the question of what has happened to Navalni.

I have no doubt that they killed him.

Alexei has spent three years under the control of the security forces, who already organized an attack on him in 2020 that failed.

Today they have taken the operation to the end.

I don't ask myself the question of who killed him.

I have no doubt that it is Putin.

Putin is a war criminal.

Navalny was his key opponent in Russia and was hated in the Kremlin.

Putin had the motive and the opportunity.

And I am convinced that he was the one who ordered him killed.

I understand that official propaganda will begin to manipulate public opinion.

They will say that Navalny's death does not benefit the president, that killing Navalny one month before the elections is not logical, that Putin is focused on global politics and does not have time to think about who knows what prisoner... It is a complete stupidity, and you can instantly erase it from your head.

After Navalny's poisoning in 2020, propaganda defended Putin with the argument that “if he had wanted to kill him, he would have done it.”

And it is the pure truth.

He loved him and killed him.

And not only did he kill him, but he killed him demonstratively.

Especially shortly before the elections, so that no one actually doubts Putin's participation.

In the same way he manifested that he killed Prigozhin: so that no one would doubt it.

As Putin understands things, this is precisely how power is consolidated: with murder, cruelty and exemplary revenge.

This is not the thinking of a statesman.

It's the way of thinking of a gang boss.

So let us honestly recognize that Putin is the head of a mafia structure that has merged with our State.

A being deprived of all moral or legal restrictions.

A being that subjects his people to terror, and those who do not fear him he locks up or eliminates.

That's why Boris Nemtsov was shot dead.

That is why they killed Alexei Navalni.

For three years, in the penal colonies they have tortured him in the punishment cells and punished him so that Alexei would ask for mercy.

They have not succeeded and that is why they have taken his life.

The confrontation between Navalni and Putin has shown the dimension of both personalities.

Alexei remains in history as a man of incomparable courage, a man who continued forward in the name of what he believed in.

And he marched with a smile and with his head held proudly high.

And he died a hero.

Putin, on the other hand, will remain a little man who casually received enormous power into his hands.

A character who hides in a bunker, who kills the cheetah quietly and makes millions of people hostage to her complexes.

But I don't wish death on Putin.

I long for him to answer for his crimes, and not only before the divine judge but before the earthly one.

Alexei Navalny was my friend.

As was Boris Nemtsov.

We work for the same cause and dedicate our lives to making Russia a peaceful, free and happy country.

Today my two friends are dead.

And I feel a black emptiness deep inside.

And, of course, I am aware of my own risks.

I am behind bars, my life is in Putin's hands and is in danger.

But I will continue to push the envelope with my line.

Standing before Boris's body in February 2015, I swore to myself not to be afraid, not to give up and not to run away.

Nine years later, mourning the murder of Navalni, I can only repeat my oath: as long as my heart continues to beat in my chest, I will continue fighting against tyranny.

As long as I live I will not fear evil.

As long as I breathe, I will be with my people.

I swear.

Alexei sleeps in peace.

Yulia [the widow], Lyudmila Ivanovna and Anatoly Ivanovich [the parents], Oleg, Dasha and Zakhar [the children]: courage!

I am with you.

Ilya Yashin

is imprisoned in a Siberian prison for criticizing the war in Ukraine and condemning the Bucha massacre.

He was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.

Translation by

Ricardo San Vicente.

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