The most well-known opposition politician in Russia, Alexei Navalny, declared today that the post-Soviet elite, whom he portrayed as shady, power-hungry, and deceitful, would eventually fall apart, along with President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
The 47-year-old Navalny, a former attorney who gained notoriety over ten years ago by criticizing Putin’s inner circle and making charges of widespread corruption, is presently being held captive in a jail located roughly sixty kilometers north of the Arctic Circle.
“The polygamists have become conservatives in our country. The members of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) are now Orthodox (Christian). The owners of ‘golden passports’ and offshore accounts are now aggressive patriots,” Navalny said in a social media post facilitated by his supporters.
“Lies, lies and nothing but lies,” Navalny said. “It will collapse and crumble. Putin’s state is not viable. One day we will look at his place and he won’t be there.”
Putin’s Russia is a state ruled by “thieves and criminals,” according to Navalny, who was ordered to remain in prison until he is 74. He has warned repeatedly that one day there will be a seismic change brought about by a revolution.
Since Putin assumed the top position in the Kremlin on December 31, 1999, his opponents have incorrectly forecast multiple times that he would lose the election.
Russian authorities claim that Navalny and his supporters are radicals with ties to the US CIA intelligence agency who want to sow division in Russia, dismissing his criticism as baseless. The majority of Navalny’s major backers have left overseas, his movement is illegal, and he is imprisoned.
His voluntary return to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he received treatment for what Western laboratory tests revealed to be an attempt to kill him with a nerve toxin in Siberia, won him respect from the divided Russian opposition.
He was imprisoned upon his return. Navalny says that he was poisoned with Novichok by Russia’s secret police, although Russia disputes this.
According to Navalny, other inmates were asking him, “Why did you return?”
He claimed that “cynicism and conspiracy” had become so ingrained in modern Russia that many people no longer trusted straightforward motives and instead thought he was involved in some sort of covert Kremlin plot.
“I have my country and my convictions. And I don’t want to give up my country or my beliefs,” Navalny said. “And I cannot betray either the first or the second.”
“If your beliefs are worth anything, you should be ready to stand up for them. And if necessary, make sacrifices.”
