“On his birthday, one has to be honest with oneself,” Navalny said in a message. “I asked myself this question: Is my spirit really strong or am I pretending? And my answer is that I really am.”
Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who has been spending his third birthday in prison since his arrest on Sunday, announced that he is maintaining his spirits despite the tightening conditions of his detention and his placement in solitary confinement once again.
In parallel, at least 45 people were arrested Sunday by the police in several Russian cities, especially Moscow and St. Petersburg, during movements in support of Navalny on the occasion of his birthday, according to the non-governmental organization “OVD-Info”.
“On his birthday, one has to be honest with oneself,” Navalny said in a message. “I asked myself this question: Is my spirit really strong or am I pretending? And my answer is that I really am.”
He announced that he had been placed for the 16th time in disciplinary detention.
His supporters emphasized that the authorities seek to break him psychologically by sending him continuously for several days to this cell, where the living conditions are harsh.
“It is clear that I do not want to wake up in this hole, but rather have breakfast with my family, kiss my children on the cheek, open my gifts and say: This is really what I dreamed of,” Navalny wrote.
“But that’s how life is: social progress and a better future can only be achieved if a certain number of people are willing to pay the price for the right to have convictions.”
He believed that “a day will come when telling the truth and fighting for justice in Russia will be normal and not dangerous.”
He continued, “My goal in the past year was not to become irritable and depressed, and to maintain calm, otherwise it will be the beginning of my defeat.” He thanked his supporters, and saluted all the “political prisoners” around the world.
Alexei Navalny will soon be tried in a new case for “extremism”, which threatens him with an additional 35 years in prison.
Navalny was arrested in January 2021 upon his return to Russia after recovering from serious poisoning that he attributes to the Kremlin, and he believes this new case is a way to keep him in detention for life.
At the end of March 2021, Navalny was sentenced in Russia to nine years in prison for “embezzlement”. He denies these charges and considers them politically motivated.
From his prison, 200 kilometers from Moscow, he continues to send messages to his team telling of the circumstances of his detention and denouncing Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine.
