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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: 3, Interesting) by quietus on Sunday February 18 2024, @05:41AM

    by quietus (6328) on Sunday February 18 2024, @05:41AM (#1344985) Journal

    As a historian, I think Navalny's significance is that he tried to show that other things were possible, you know, we'll never know what kind of leader he would have been. But he, the message that he had, was a message that you have to be courageous, not everyone has to be as courageous as he was, but you're not going to go anywhere, unless you're a little bit courageous. And that's a very important message for the future of Russia, because people are going to have to be a little bit courageous.

    (source) [rferl.org]

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