At least 109 people were arrested this Sunday in Russia for showing their support for Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, who was celebrating another birthday in prison.
The data was updated by the Russian organization OVD-Info, which monitors arrests for political reasons and that during the day had already recorded the arrest of at least 45 people in various places in Russia, particularly in Pushkin Square, in Moscow.
Alexei Navalny, who was sentenced in March 2021 to nine years in prison, has served 47 years and said he is keeping his spirits up, despite tougher conditions of his detention.
“Of course I would prefer not to wake up in this hole and have breakfast as a family, with a kiss from my children, opening gifts and saying: this is exactly what I wanted,” Navalny wrote in a message, in which he assures that he keeps the spirit.
The Russian opponent claims to be in a disciplinary cell for the sixteenth time. His supporters say the authorities seek to affect him psychologically, regularly sending him to these cells in very poor conditions for several days.
“But that’s life: social progress and a better future can only be achieved if some people are willing to pay for the right to hold convictions,” he added.
According to Navalny, “the day will come when telling the truth and fighting for justice in Russia will be common and safe.”
The Russian opponent, who thanked the support and saluted all the “political prisoners” in the world, should soon be tried for “extremism”, risking a sentence of another 35 years in prison.
Detained since January 2021, after returning to Russia recovered from a serious poisoning that he attributes to the Kremlin, Alexei Navalny considers that this new case is a way of keeping him in prison for life.
In March 2021, he was sentenced to nine years in prison on what he considers to be fictitious charges of “fraud” and has continued to send messages to his team from prison, discussing detention conditions and criticizing Vladimir Putin’s leadership and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. . .
Source: TSF
