Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny expected to die in custody, according to extracts from his posthumously compiled memoirs.
“I will spend the rest of my life in prison and I will die here,” Navalny wrote in his diary while in custody in March 2022. “There will be no one to say goodbye,” Navalny continued.
Several media outlets, including “Spiegel” and “New Yorker”, published excerpts from the opposition politician’s memoirs. The new book, titled “Patriot,” is based on Navalny’s diary entries from prison and the period before that. It will be published on 22 October.
Death in a Russian prison camp
Navalny, the most prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died on February 16 in a Russian prison camp in the Arctic where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence.
Navalny’s supporters and many Western politicians blame the Russian leadership and President Putin for the death of the opposition.
In an entry from July 1, 2022, Navalny summarizes a typical daily routine: wake up at 6:00 am, have breakfast at 6:20 am and start work at 6:40 am “At work you sit at the sewing machine on a stool below knee height for seven hours,” he explains. “After work you sit on a wooden bench under a portrait of Putin for a few hours. This is what they call ‘disciplinary action’.”
Return to Russia for his conviction
The Kremlin critic began writing his memoirs after a poison attack in 2020, which led to him being treated in a Berlin hospital for several months. The following year, Navalny returned to Russia, where he was arrested and sentenced to 19 years in prison.
January 17, 2024 is the last journal entry published by the New Yorker before the book’s publication. In it, Navalny answers questions from fellow inmates and prison guards about why he returned to Russia.
“I didn’t want to give up or betray my country. If our faith is to mean something, we must be willing to stand up for it and make sacrifices when necessary.”
