Alexei Navalny’s posthumous memoir predicts Russian President Putin's downfall: 'It will crumble and collapse'

Excerpts from the memoir of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been released, where he expressed his belief that he would die behind bars. The New Yorker magazine published these excerpts on Friday (Oct 11), ahead of the upcoming release of his book, Patriot, on October22.

"I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here," Navalny wrote on March 22,2022. "There will not be anybody to say goodbye to... All anniversaries will be celebrated without me. I'll never see my grandchildren."

In his posthumous memoir, Navalny predicted that RussianPresident Vladimir Putin's rule would eventually fall, describing it as built on "nothing but lies."

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Navalny,47, was regarded as Putin's most prominent political rival, who succeeded in rallying Russiansand organising large-scale protests against corruption and the Kremlin's abuse of power in recent years.

He passed away in a remote Arctic prison in February, where he was serving a 19-year sentence on multiple charges, including leading an extremist group. The Kremlin criticmaintained that these charges were politically motivated.

Navalny was imprisoned following his return to Russia in 2021 after he was treated for a poisoning attack involving a nerve agent in Germany, which he blamed on the Kremlin. He had been sentenced to prison three times since then.

Russian authorities have consistently denied any involvement in both Navalny’s poisoning and his death.

However, the Kremlin critic’s detention and subsequent death sparked widespread criticism, with many placing the blame on Putin.

In April, Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, disclosed that her late husband had started writing his memoir in 2020, after his poisoning. He had been flown to Germany for medical care at the time.

“The only thing we should fear is that we will surrender our homeland to be plundered by a gang of liars, thieves, and hypocrites,” he wrote on January17, 2022, reflecting on his final years.

Navalny also insisted that corruption was eroding the state and argued that "the best way to elect leaders is through honest and free elections.” He said that the current rulers of Russia "have absolutely no ideas” and that “their only goal is to cling to power."

Speaking of Russia’s leadership under Putin, Navalny wrote, "Lies, and nothing but lies," adding that "it will crumble and collapse."

He predicted in his book that the "Putinist state is not sustainable" and would eventually vanish. "One day, we will look, and it will no longer be there. Victory is inevitable," Navalnydeclared.

In his final entry, dated January 17,2024, just a month before his death, Navalny wrote: "It turned out that, in Russia, to defend the right to have and not to hide your beliefs, you have to pay by sitting in a solitary cell. Of course, I don’t like being there. But I will not give up either my ideas or my homeland."

(With inputs from agencies)