Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who faces another 30 years in prison if convicted of extremism in the trial that began Monday, has announced “an election campaign” against the war in Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We are going to conduct an electoral campaign against the war. And against Putin. Just that: a long, persistent, exhausting but very important campaign, in which we will incite the people against the war,” Navalny declared in an article published on his page on the Internet .
According to the imprisoned Russian adversary, the conflict sparked more than 15 months ago by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to “the degradation of the economy and the fall in living standards”. [na Rússia]criminal soldiers and the needy mobilized, killed and wounded”.
“It is a very concrete mission and our work will be successful, I have no doubt,” he added.
Navalny recalled that his new trial began this Monday, which he took as a reason to “call everyone to action and announce a new, very important project: a great propaganda machine, a machine of truth” to fight ” against the lies of Putin and the Kremlin”. hypocrisy”.
He also indicated that the trial itself, which is underway in a criminal court in the Vladimir region, the same place where he has been serving his sentence since June 2022, “shows that a project like this is good and necessary”.
He argued that he is being tried in prison because Putin “fears the truth” and above all that it reaches the masses.
“Essentially, the mission of strengthening and prolonging ‘Putinist’ power is achieved by silencing anyone who dares to tell the truth,” he claimed, denouncing that the number of measures aimed at banning and making organizations illegal has increased recently. and silence any other opinion.
The campaign, he assured, will not take place on the streets, during pickets or protests, but on social networks, in digital spaces, since “every grandmother has WhatsApp and Telegram” and will even learn to master artificial intelligence systems.
To this end, he called on the first hundred volunteers “ready to dedicate themselves to this wonderful but difficult cause”.
“It is a long-term project. Putin’s military defeat is inevitable. But no one knows what it will be like and what the consequences will be,” he indicated, as the tops will not relinquish power and will try “to convince the citizens brainwash”. .
Source: DN
