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posted by janrinok on Friday February 16 2024, @04:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the some-battles-you-cannot-win dept.

I have my country and my convictions. And I don't want to give up on either. I can't betray either one. If your convictions mean anything, you must be ready to stand up for them. And, if necessary, make sacrifices [for them]. If you're not ready [to do that], then you have no convictions. You just think you do. But those aren't convictions or principles; they're just thoughts in your head.

It so happens that in today's Russia, I have to pay for my right to have and to openly express my convictions by sitting in solitary confinement. And, of course, I don't like being in prison. But I won't renounce my convictions or my homeland. My convictions aren't exotic, sectarian, or radical. On the contrary, everything I believe in is based on science and historical experience. Those in power must change. The best way to elect leaders is through honest and free elections. Everyone needs a fair court. Corruption destroys the state. There should be no censorship. The future lies with these principles.

Alexey Navalny, Russia's most famous dissident, has died. (4 June 1976 – 16 February 2024).

Returning to Russia in 2021, after having been treated in Berlin for novichok poisoning, Navalny was immediately arrested on arrival at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. Since then, he has been in and out of (but mostly in) solitary confinement all over the country, with his final station being the Polar Wolf penal colony in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Siberia.

On Monday, he had been visited by his parents. In reacting to the news of her son's death, his mother reacted:

"I don't want to hear any condolences. We saw our son in the colony on Feb. 12th. He was alive, healthy, cheerful."

More info here.


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  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2024, @10:05PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2024, @10:05PM (#1344827)

    "We'll never know" - haha good one. Putin's biggest critic dies of a "heart attack" a month before the presidential election at the age of 47 while in solitary confinement. I guess we'll never know if he was killed!

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2024, @10:46PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2024, @10:46PM (#1344831)

    You don't know that the timing of the death means anything. He wasn't campaigning for President from inside of a gulag, and even his lawyers had trouble communicating with him. There's no advantage to be gained by killing Navalny a month ahead of the election. Putin was already going to win, now there will be protests and more anti-dictator sentiment.

    What's more likely is that his health was fucked up from being poisoned by FSB agents, and being thrown into a harsh gulag in Siberia didn't help. The specifics of his treatment there can be litigated after the Putin regime falls and prison documents become available decades from now.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2024, @06:41PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2024, @06:41PM (#1344904)

      The one thing you should know about Russian record keeping .. is the lack of record keeping.