Death of Navalny: opponents in prison Ilyia Iachine and Vladimir Kara-Murza call for nothing to be given in
It has been six days now since the Russian prison administration declared Alexeï Navalny dead, the family still does not have access to his body and the appeal of the deceased opponent's mother to Vladimir Putin has gone unheeded.
But, Tuesday February 20, then this Thursday February 22, 2024, the last two major opposition figures - behind bars - managed to express themselves.
Ilyia Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza both called for no concessions
Vladimir Kara-Murza, sentenced to 25 years in prison, during the sentencing on April 17, 2023 in Moscow.
© Moscow City Court press service / AFP
By: RFI Follow
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With our correspondent in Moscow,
Anissa el-Jabri
This text published Tuesday on social networks, we feel, Iliya Iachine, sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for “forgery against the Russian army”, wrote it with deep pain, rage and determination .
The former traveling companion of Boris Nemtsov, an opponent murdered by bullets in 2015, also a friend of
Alexeï Navalny
, writes: “
My two friends are dead.
I feel a black void inside, the pain and horror are unbearable
.”
Of the opponent who died in secret last Friday, Iliya Iachine said: “
Alexei will go down in history as a man of exceptional courage, contemptuous of fear and death
.”
His few lines on Russian power are precise, blatantly accusatory, and extremely risky to formulate: “
According to Putin, this is how power is asserted: through murder, cruelty and demonstrative revenge.
This is not the thinking of a statesman.
That’s the mindset of a gang leader
.”
“
We have an obligation for our late comrades to continue fighting
”
Iliya Yashin writes that he is aware of the dangers involved and specifies “
I am behind bars, my life is in the hands of Putin
”, but he calls for nothing to be given in.
Just like Vladimir Kara-Murza, sentenced to 25 years for “
discrediting the army
” and “
high treason
”, who declared this Thursday: “
If we fall into discouragement and despair, we give them what they want .
We have no right to do this.
We have an obligation to our late comrades to continue to fight even harder and to always be aware of why they lived and died.
»
Before the death of Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Kara Murza had inherited the nickname “
political prisoner number two in Russia
”.
This Russo-British is in fact serving the longest sentence ever imposed on an opponent since Stalin: 25 years.
Poisoned twice, he is still suffering the after-effects.
Vladimir Kara-Murza requires special medical monitoring and is detained in a prison with very harsh conditions in Siberia.
Also listen Accents of Europe - Russia: the tenacity of Evgenia Kara-Murza
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