NEW YORK: Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who was President Vladimir Putin’s top political opponent before his death in February, believed he would die in prison, according to his posthumous memoir which will be released on October 22.

The New Yorker published excerpts from the book, featuring writing from Navalny’s prison diary and earlier. “I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here,” he wrote on March 22, 2022.

“There will not be anybody to say goodbye to … All anniversaries will be celebrated without me. I’ll never see my grandchildren.” Navalny had been serving a 19-year prison sentence on “extremism” charges in an Arctic penal colony.

His death on Feb 16 at age 47 drew widespread condemnation, with many blaming Putin. Navalny was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Russia after suffering a major health emergency from being poisoned in 2020.

“The only thing we should fear is that we will surrender our homeland to be plundered by a gang of liars, thieves, and hypocrites,” he wrote on Jan 17, 2022.

The diary reveals the punishing toll that the prison regime and his hunger strike exerted on his body, according to further extracts published in the London Times.

“Today I feel crushed. We went to the bathhouse. I could hardly tolerate standing under the hot shower. My legs gave way. It’s evening now and I have no strength at all. I just want to lie down, and for the first time I’m feeling emotionally and morally down,” he wrote in one entry.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2024