Yesterday, I heard from a long-time friend of mine who lives in Poland. He, just like me, is totally crushed to hear the news that
Alexei Navalny has died in a Russian prison. What was Nalvalny's crime? A desire for Freedom and Democracy in Russia. Freedom from corruption, Freedom from the Iron, Dictatorial Hand of Vladimir Putin.
Alexei Navalny left this message behind in the event he was killed:
"You're not allowed to give up. If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong. We need to utilize this power, to not give up, to remember we are a huge power that is being oppressed by these bad dudes. We don't realize how strong we actually are. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. So don't be inactive."- Alexi Navalny - Born June 4, 1976 – Died February 16, 2024
"A month later, Navalny
flew back to Moscow. His friends had tried to talk him out of it. He wouldn’t hear of staying in exile and becoming politically irrelevant. He imagined himself as Russia’s Nelson Mandela: he would outlive Putin’s reign and become President. Perhaps he believed that the men he was fighting were capable of embarrassment and wouldn’t dare to kill him after he’d proved that they had tried to. He and I had argued, over the years, about the fundamental nature of Putin and his regime: he said that they were “crooks and thieves”; I said that they were murderers and terrorists. After he came out of his coma, I asked him if he had finally been convinced that they were murderers. No, he said. They kill to protect their wealth. Fundamentally, they are just greedy.
He thought too highly of them. They are, in fact, murderers." - Masha Gessen