“I didn’t have to be in this place, I didn’t have to record this video. In my place should have been another person. But this person was killed by Putin.”
Here’s the transcript of the video, for those who do not have the time to watch:
I will continue Alexei Navalny’s work
Hello, it’s Yulia Navalnaya. Today I would like to speak to you for the first time on this channel. I should not have been in this place. I should not have recorded this video. There should have been another person in my place. But this person was killed by Vladimir Putin.
Three days ago, Vladimir Putin killed my husband, Alexei Navalny. Putin killed the father of my children. Putin took away the most precious thing I had, the closest and most beloved person.
But Putin has also taken Navalny away from you. Somewhere in a colony in the far north, above the Arctic Circle, in the eternal winter. Putin not only killed the man called Alexei Navalny, he also wanted to kill our hopes, our freedom, and our future. He wanted to destroy and erase the best proof that Russia can be different. That we are strong, that we are courageous, that we believe and fight desperately. And that we want to live differently. And together we will turn our country into the beautiful Russia of the future.
All these years I was always by Alexei’s side. Elections, rallies, house arrests, searches, detentions, prison, poisoning, rallies again, arrests and prison again. Here is our last meeting with him in mid-February 2022, and here is our last photo. Exactly two years later, Putin will kill him. All these years I was by Alexei’s side, I was happy to stand by Alexei’s side and support him. But today I want to be by your side. Because I know that you have lost as much as I have.
Alexei died in prison after being tortured and tormented for three years. He was not only imprisoned, not imprisoned as others are imprisoned, he was tortured. He was kept in a punishment cell, in a concrete box, please imagine that. It’s a room of 6 or 7 square meters, with nothing but a stool, a sink, a hole in the floor instead of a toilet and a bed strapped to the wall so you can not lie down on it. A cup, a book and a toothbrush - that’s all he had. Hundreds of days. He was bullied, cut off from the world, not given a pen or paper to write a letter to me or our children. He was starving. He starved for three years.
And not only did he not give up, he cheered us up the whole time. He cheered us up. He laughed. He made jokes. He encouraged us. Never for a split second did he question what he was fighting or suffering for.
My husband was unbreakable. And that’s exactly why Putin killed him. Shamefully, cowardly, without ever looking him in the eye or even mentioning his name.
And just as shamefully and cowardly, they are now hiding his body, not showing it to his family, not giving it to them, but lying and waiting pitifully for the traces of another [dose of] Putin’s Novichok to disappear.
We know exactly why Putin killed Alexei three days ago. We will tell you about it soon. We will definitely find out who exactly and how exactly committed this crime. We will tell you their names and show you their faces.
But the most important thing we can do (for Alexei and for ourselves) is to keep fighting. Harder, more desperately and more fiercely than before. I know it seems impossible to do more, but we have to do more. We should all unite in a strong fist and defeat this crazy regime. We should defeat Putin, his friends, the bandits in shoulder straps, the thieves and murderers who have destroyed our country.
I know and feel how much you want to know why he came back. Why would he voluntarily place himself in the hands of those who once almost killed him? Why would he sacrifice himself in this way? After all, he could have lived a normal life with his family, not talking, not investigating, not speaking and not fighting. But he could not do that.
Alexei loved Russia more than anything else in the world. He loved our country, he loved you. He believed in us, in our strength, in our future and in the fact that we deserve the best. Not only with words, but also with deeds. He believed in it so deeply and sincerely that he was ready to give his life for it. And his great love is enough for us to continue his work. As long as it’s necessary. We’ll work fiercely and courageously as Alexei did.
Everyone is thinking now: Where will we get the strength, how will we live on? We’ll draw strength from him. In his memory, in his ideas, in his thoughts, in his inexhaustible trust in us. I personally will draw my strength from this.
By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me, half of my heart and half of my soul. But I still have the other half. And it tells me that I have no right to give up. And there are many of us, and if we want to achieve something, we will achieve it.
I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny. I will continue to fight for our country. And I encourage you to stand by my side. Do not just share the grief and endless pain that has enveloped us and will not let go. I ask you to share this anger with me. Anger, rage, hatred for those who have dared to destroy our future.
I address you with the words of Alexei, in which I firmly believe. It is not shameful to do little, it is shameful to do nothing. It is shameful to be intimidated.
We must use every opportunity: Fight against war, against corruption, against injustice. Fight for fair elections and freedom of expression, fight to take back our country.
I know what I’m fighting for. I’m fighting for the new future of my family and my children. Russia, the free, peaceful, happy, beautiful Russia of the future, of which my husband was dreaming about - that is what we need.
I want to live in such a Russia, and I want our children to live in such a Russia. I want to build it together with you. Exactly as Alexei Navalny envisioned it. Full of dignity, justice and love. There is no other way.
The unthinkable sacrifice he had made can not be in vain. Keep fighting and do not give up. I am not afraid, and I urge you not to be afraid of anything as well.
Can’t even downvote their bullshit now. the amount of immature shit I read in this comment thread made me think I was on hexbear or lemmygrad. Thanks for putting things into context and being the voice of reason.
This is not someone to be celebrated. Use his death as an expose on the silencing of dissent in Russia but as nothing more.
He was a Russian fascist with well documented association with the neo-Nazis in the early 2000s then turned into a pro-Western liberal who opposes Putin.
Edit: 2011 NY Times profile about Navalny (CW: racism):
Liberals, meanwhile, have deep reservations about him, because he espouses Russian nationalist views. He has appeared as a speaker alongside neo-Nazis and skinheads, and once starred in a video that compares dark-skinned Caucasus militants to cockroaches. While cockroaches can be killed with a slipper, he says that in the case of humans, “I recommend a pistol.”
Not to mention he voluntarily went back to Russia after believing they tried to have him killed. I don’t know what he expected
Also the video of him being racist is still up on his personal YouTube channel to be clear. It is not a position he ever distanced himself from.
He has spoken at the annual Russian March alongside leaders of various neo-Nazi organisations in Russia, many of which have been subsequently outlawed, with leaders arrested. Footage shows attendees flying banners with Nazi insignia, chanting racist and Islamophobic slogans, proudly Nazi saluting to the cameras, and bearing tattoos of Adolf Hitler and other Nazi insignia. Navalny confessed that he has attended the march for at least 4 years running.
In 2007, on a live broadcast Navalny compared Muslims in southern Russia to tooth decay and cockroaches, imploring viewers to shoot them while he held a gun.
In 2013, after ethnic riots took place took place in Moscow, Navalny championed the rioters for confronting “hordes of legal and illegal immigrants” on his blog.
Also he was groomed by the CIA as a potential leader of Russia in the Yale World Leaders Program (funded by the NED, a subsidiary of the CIA), which had connections to the 2014 Ukrainian coup.
Source for this one unfortunately not longer exists as far as I am aware (dead link) but I thought it was worth noting if you want to look into it yourself
I also want to make it clear I am not someone who defends Russia nor Putin. I just think this is the last person we should glorify
Kadirov is basically feudal lord of Chechnya. And tooth decay part was mentioned because russian laws doesn’t work in Chechnya and this practice spreads out in other regions.
Wow how did you type that out with Putin’s cock so deeply in your mouth?
If this is Russia’s efforts at controlling the message, it’s very obvious their best and brightest are dead and they need literal 60iq idiots doing the work.
Isn’t it funny that Russian men like this are so pathetic and their own women refuse them, so they know the only pussy they’ll feel in their life is from a helpless baby. Sad.
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