(Reuters) - Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has complained of being poisoned, assaulted and deprived of proper medical care, but on Monday he disclosed he faced a new challenge: being forced to listen to a pro-Putin pop singer at 0500 every morning.
Navalny, 47, a former lawyer who rose to prominence more than a decade ago by lampooning President Vladimir Putin’s elite and voicing allegations of vast corruption, is currently in a jail about 60 km (40 miles) north of the Arctic Circle.
Sentenced to stay in prison until he is 74 on charges he says were trumped up to keep him out of politics, Navalny said his morning regime now consisted of listening to the Russian national anthem before being played “I am Russian,” a patriotic song performed by a pro-Putin singer called “Shaman”.
Even before reading the post I knew immediately which song it is. I’ve seen it added ironically to many videos of Russians dying alone and cold in a bomb crater somewhere in a field in Ukraine
Russian nationalist who hates Ukraine being upset is good news.
Found the Russian bot account
Mate, have you ever looked up this numpty’s views?
He’s a self professed Russian right wing nationalist who doesn’t support Ukraine.
The enemy of your enemy does not magically become your friend.
He’s a lib with an anti-immigrant and nationalist streak, and I’m no fan of his. But a cursory glance at Wikipedia shows that he’s 100% against the war in Ukraine. So much so that he thinks crimea should be returned to Ukraine and that Russia should pay reparations. Whether he’d actually stand by that if he were in power is questionable, again, he’s a lib. But as far as we know, he’s about as pro-ukraine as a Russian can be
“Crimea, of course, now de facto belongs to Russia,” Navalny said. “I believe that, despite the fact that Crimea was seized in blatant violation of all international norms, nevertheless, the reality is that Crimea is now part of the Russian Federation. And let’s not fool ourselves. And I strongly advise Ukrainians not to deceive themselves either. It will remain part of Russia and will never become part of Ukraine in the foreseeable future.”
Venediktov pressed on, asking if Navalny would return Crimea if he ever became president.
“Is Crimea a bologna sandwich, or something, to be passed back and forth? I don’t think so,” Navalny said
He was then asked if Russians and Ukrainians were the same people. “My opinion, as a person who spent a lot of time in Ukraine, with relatives, etc.,” he said. “I don’t see any difference between Russians and Ukrainians at all.” He understood the ramifications, adding: “I think that such a point of view will cause some kind of monstrous indignation in Ukraine.”
On 20 February 2023, he condemned Putin for “destroying” Russia’s own future “just to make our country look bigger on the map” and said that Russia must end its occupation of Ukraine and recognise Ukraine’s borders as they were established in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Navalny also said Russia would have to pay post-war reparations to Ukraine and called for an international investigation into war crimes, saying: “Tens of thousands of innocent Ukrainians have been murdered and pain and suffering have befallen millions more.”
Good to see he’s changed his tune on this, now I’ll go from hate to mild-dislike because he’s still a nationalist.
I do wonder if he’d have said the same if Russia was able to pull it off in 3 days or whatever they originally said.
When did he say that? 2006 or so?
I feel bad that this guy essentially martyr’d himself and I don’t really think it’s done anything to change Russian discourse. That being said this punishment is wild and something I would genuinely laugh at if it was happening in places like Guantanamo bay
Wait, wasn’t Guantanamo Bay where the US tortured a bunch of innocent people? You’d have to be a sick/sadistic psychopath to laugh at crimes against humanity.
