"No one will be there"

Navalny expected to die in prison camp

(Bild: APA/AP Photo/Denis Kaminev)

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny expected to die in prison - according to his memoirs, which have been compiled posthumously. "I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here", Navalny wrote in his diary during his imprisonment in March 2022.

The New Yorker published excerpts from Navalny's memoirs in advance. The new book, entitled "Patriot", is based on Navalny's diary entries from his imprisonment and the time before. It will be published on October 22.

"There will be no one to say goodbye to"
He apparently had a precise idea of how he would spend his final days. "There will be no one to say goodbye to", Navalny wrote. However, he did not seem to be afraid of this. In an entry dated 17 January 2022, Navalny wrote: "The only thing we should fear is giving up our homeland to be plundered by a gang of liars, thieves and hypocrites."

Navalny and his family

(Bild: APA/AP Photo/Andrew Lubimov)

Sitting for hours under Putin's picture for "discipline"
In an entry dated 1 July 2022, Navalny summarizes a typical daily routine: Waking up at 06:00, breakfast at 06:20 and starting work at 06:40. "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. They call that 'disciplinary activity'."

The Kremlin critic began writing his memoirs after a poison attack in 2020, as a result of which he was treated in a hospital in Berlin for several months. The following year, Navalny returned to Russia, where he was arrested and sentenced to 19 years in prison.

Navalny wanted to "make sacrifices" by returning home
The last diary entry pre-published by The New Yorker dates from January 17, 2024, in which Navalny answers the question from fellow inmates and prison guards as to why he returned to Russia. "I didn't want to give up my country or betray it. If our convictions are to mean anything, we must be prepared to stand up for them and, if necessary, make sacrifices."

Navalny, the most prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in a Russian penal camp in the Arctic on February 16, 2024. Navalny's supporters and numerous Western politicians blame the Russian leadership and President Vladimir Putin for the opposition figure's death.