Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, who has been detained since 2021, said on Tuesday that the Wagner paramilitary group’s mutiny showed that Vladimir Putin’s power “posed a threat to Russia”.
“Putin’s regime is Russia’s greatest threat…and so dangerous to the country that even its inevitable collapse threatens civil war.”Navalny said on Twitter in his first response since the Wagner group’s uprising last weekend.
Since his arrest in Russia in January 2021, Navanly has forwarded his messages to lawyers, who are then published on the internet by his team.
“It was not the West or the opposition that shot down Russian helicopters over Russia. It wasn’t the FBK [a organização de Navalny] who brought Russia to the brink of civil war (…) it was Putin who did it personally”said Navalny, one of the Kremlin’s most prominent critics.
The opponent accused supporters of Russian power of being “ready to unleash a war of all against all at any time”, and called for a post-Putin transition to be through “free elections”.
Contrary to the Kremlin’s claims, he also assured that the population did not support Putin during the uprising of the Wagner paramilitary group and that “there was no unity of the nation around” the Russian president.
“Dictators and seizure of power always lead to disorder, state weakness and chaos”he added.
The anti-corruption activist, who is serving a nine-year prison sentence for “fraud”, faces a new trial in which he faces 30 years in prison for “extremism”. Navalny views these matters as political in nature.
As he has indicated, he has been stripped of the radio in his cell and has been unable to speak to other prisoners since June 1, having only been informed of the Wagner riots by his lawyers at a hearing for his retrial, that takes place behind closed doors. .
Wagner Group mercenaries staged a 24-hour armed uprising this weekend, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, taking the city of Rostov-on-Don, in southern Russia, and advancing as far as 200 kilometers from Moscow province.
The uprising ended with an agreement brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, according to the Kremlin, that Prigozhin be sent into exile in Belarus in exchange for immunity for himself and his mercenaries.
In a televised statement to the nation, Putin suggested the mercenaries stay in Russia and join the army, or leave for Belarus.
Source: DN
