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- Navalny's last days: shared correspondence with former Russian-dissident, Israeli minister Sharansky
Navalny's last days: shared correspondence with former Russian-dissident, Israeli minister Sharansky
Sharansky spent nine years in a forced labor camp in Russia, later moved to Israel and served as a cabinet minister and chairman of the Jewish Agency
Late Russia's opposition leader Alexei Navalny and Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky exchanged letters during back in March-April 2023. Correspondence of two political prisoners, who both did time in the same colony in Russia's Vladimir Oblast Sharansky refers to as his "alma mater," is filled with moral clarity and dark humor, as well as mutual respect and admiration.
For one, Navalny wrote to Sharansky that his memoir 'Fear No Evil' gave him inspiration during his inprisonment: "The 'virus of freedom' is far from being eradicated. Hundreds of thousands are not scared to speak out for freedom and against the war, despite the threats."
"Hundreds of them are in prisons, but I am confident that they will not be broken and they will not give up. Many of them draw strength and inspiration from your story and your legacy. I am definitely one of them."
Three days after Navalny's death in jail, Sharansky told Russian Israeli Lutsheye Radio: "In our brief but very emotional exchange, I told him that I'd like to keep my record of the longest stay in SHIZO [punishment cell], but it looked like he would beat me there."
Sharansky believes that the fact that Navalny spent in SHIZO over 300 days in under three years led to his death. "It's clear that this terrible revengeful regime physically destroyed him," said Soviet-times dissident.
Sharansky added that to him, Navalny brought hope that hundreds thousands of people would continue fighting for freedom.
Comparing the current political regime in Russia to the Ilya Brezhnev's times in the USSR (1964 - 1982), he said that Vladimir Putin returned political prosecution to Joseph Stalin's repressions. "I think this regime, if nobody stops it, will reach the level of Stalin."
Sharansky called for the United States to provide aid to Ukraine and further sanction Putin's Russia in response to Navalny's killing. He expressed hope that this kind of action would boost internal opposition to Putin's regime.
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of late leader of the Russian opposition, on Monday vowed to continue his political struggle: "I will continue to fight for our country and I am urging you to stand by me. Share my devastation, but also share my rage towards those who dared to kill our future."