Jailed opposition politician and friend of late Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, Ilya Yashin, is convinced that President Vladimir Putin precisely planned his opponent’s assassination and left nothing to chance. He speaks to journalists with courageous words – and thereby endangers life and limb.
Although he deeply hated Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the outspoken opponent of the Kremlin, Ilya Yashin, decided not to turn his back on his homeland. He publicly spoke out against the bloodshed incited by the Russian president and spared no bad words about the head of state himself. In December 2022, a court in Moscow sentenced Yashin to eight and a half years in prison. He is serving his sentence in Smolensk Oblast. It was in this dark place that he learned of the death of his friend Navalny. In a letter to a special correspondent for the media in exile “Meduza”, he described why, in his opinion, the Russian authorities have murdered the opposition leader of all time.
“It seems like the worst possible moment was chosen for Navalny’s murder,” Jashin said. After all, the presidential elections will take place in Russia in a month. Therefore, you would assume that the Kremlin would be interested in a quiet election campaign. So why now?
Putin’s ‘fundamentally different vision’
“Probably our biggest mistake is that we keep misunderstanding Putin’s motives. We tend to look at one situation or another with our own eyes, while his perspective is fundamentally different,” said Yashin, who is convinced that Navalny’s assassination was planned and carried out with the elections in mind.
Because in Putin’s view of the world, the death of the leading opposition figure has great symbolic power – it is, so to speak, the most important event of the ‘election campaign’. “After all, Putin is not a European politician,” warns the courageous Russian from the prison camp.
Ilya Yashin (left) with his friend Alexei Navalny (right):
“Putin is not a European politician”
For a European politician, an election campaign is a public procedure in which the most convincing opponent collects the votes. The Kremlin ruler has a very different way of thinking. “Strictly speaking, this is not the thinking of a politician or statesman – it is the thinking of a godfather of the mafia,” Yashin said. You have to look at the relevant events from this perspective, that is, from the perspective of a gang leader who brought the country under his control. To stay in power, steps must be taken so that no one questions this rule. “A mafioso asserts his power by showing violence and brutality – and by demonstratively executing the opponent who dared to challenge him.”
Navalny’s murder is therefore a clear signal to the establishment and society as a whole. But hope lives on – it exists as long as at least one person lives who carries the hope of change in his heart.
“Yes, when you see the triumph of a bandit who enjoys limitless power and impunity, it is difficult not to give in to despair. It is also difficult to overcome fear and continue to resist. But this must be done. Otherwise we ourselves will become the walking dead,” Yashin warns.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
