Imprisoned, Alexei Navalny spoke about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which he described as a “distraction”.
Again judged, Alexeï Navalny continues to react to the news. The Russian opponent, who risks seeing his prison sentence extended to 15 years, spoke during the trial opened last week for embezzlement of funds from his foundation. He spoke of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, described by the Kremlin as a “military operation” to “demilitarize and denazify” the country which he blames for its rapprochement with the West for years. “I am against this war”, began the forties, imprisoned for more than a year and his return to Russia after being treated in Germany following a poisoning attempt in the summer of 2020. “I think this war is designed to distract from Russia’s problems, and it will only lead to further impoverishment. I consider those who started this war bandits and thieves. I got involved in politics to fight this criminal regime of thieves”, he continued, quoted by the “Moscow Times”. “This war will cause a large number of victims, waste lives and continue the policy of impoverishment of Russian citizens”.
In video: the first images of the conflict
“Clearly we were right when we shouted to the world: ‘He is crazy and dangerous, stop him now or it will be too late’,” said his chief of staff Leonid Volkov. Last December, when Russian troops began to be massed on the Ukrainian border, the exiled opponent thought he saw in this military escalation, coupled with growing repression and economic difficulties, a weakening of the Russian regime: “I am certain that a regime change will occur. Putinism will not survive without Putin, because its lieutenants all hate each other”, he assured in Strasbourg, while the European Parliament awarded the Sakharov Prize to Alexei Navalny. “Without him, the system will collapse and it will be a huge window of opportunity for the opposition to demand this transition and free elections,” he added.
“Russia attacked our state in the same way as Nazi Germany did in World War II”
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the severance of diplomatic ties with Russia: “Ukraine is defending itself and we will not give up our freedom. Russia attacked our state in the same way Nazi Germany did during World War II,” he added in a new televised address. A decision described as a “logical conclusion to the Russophobic policy” of the Ukrainian president according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, while Russia still refuses to use the term “war” despite the deployment of more than 150,000 soldiers and the Russian announcement of the destruction of Ukrainian air bases and anti-aircraft defenses.
To analyse :“For Putin, bringing Ukraine back into the Russian fold seems to have become an obsession”
That night at the United Nations Security Council, which met urgently and during which Vladimir Putin declared the launch of the “military operation” against Ukraine, tension was high. Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya asked his Russian counterpart Vasily Nebenzia to “call Putin, call Lavrov to stop the aggression”, assuring that it was “too late to talk about de-escalation”, after weeks fruitless diplomatic negotiations. “There is no purgatory for war criminals. They are going straight to hell”, launched the Ukrainian diplomat to his Russian colleague, who in return qualified these remarks as “madness”. “We are not aggressive towards the Ukrainian people but towards the junta in power in Kiev”, continued Vassili Nebenzia, while Ukrainians found refuge in the metro in Kiev and tried, this Thursday, to leave the capital or even the country. against Russian missiles.
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