Alexei Navalny knew he was destined to die in prison

Russian anti-establishment contender Alexei Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin's most vocal political opponents, who died in a Siberian prison in February, will posthumously publish a memoir titled Patriot on October 22 through U.S. publisher Knopf, AFP reported. In the memoir, the opposition leader claims to have had a premonition of his death in prison. Earlier in April, Navalny's wife, Yulia Navalnaya, announced her intention to publish a collection of her husband's writings. The memoir will be published in at least 11 languages, including English and Russian.

"I will spend the rest of my life in prison; I will die here,” Navalny wrote in March 2022, two years before his death. “And I will never see my grandchildren,” according to excerpts from Patriot released by The New Yorker.

He also continued his sharp criticism of Putin's regime, stating, “I cannot let a bunch of liars, thieves, and hypocrites plunder my country.” On January 17, about a month before his death, he was asked by fellow prisoners and prison guards why he returned to Russia, knowing he would be imprisoned. He replied, “I don't want to give up or betray my country. You have to be ready to make sacrifices.”

Born in Moscow in 1976, Navalny worked as a lawyer before turning to dissident activism, where he exposed the corruption of the Putin regime. In August 2020, while on a flight to Siberia, he was poisoned with Novichok, an advanced nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union, and came close to death. He was flown to Germany, where he received treatment and survived. It was around this time that he began writing his memoirs.

He returned home in January 2021, knowing that imprisonment was likely, and was promptly arrested. Initially held in a prison near Moscow, he was transferred last December to a facility in the far north of Siberia, notorious for its harsh conditions, where he died within two months.


김보라 기자 purple@donga.com