KIRKENES (Nettavisen): After Vladimir Putin was reinstated as president of Russia in 2012, he has spared no means to clear dissenters from the road. The situation in Russia today is that Putin and his regime control what is available from the media, and thus what kind of information escapes to the population.
The Kremlin has tightened the vice and is cracking down hard on those who dare to challenge Putin and his apparatus of power. An example is the Russian politician Boris Nemtsov who was shot dead on an open street in Moscow in 2015, not far from the Kremlin walls. It is not known who was behind the murder, but Nemtsov was a high-profile opposition politician who spoke against Vladimir Putin and the authorities.
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The lawyer Alexei Navalny is another well-known Russian opposition politician, who has profiled himself as a corruption hunter. His revelations about corruption among Putin and the power elite in the Kremlin have received a lot of attention in the West, but also in Russia. In 2011, he was one of the leaders of the protest movement that accused the authorities of electoral fraud after the State Duma elections in 2011, and he ran as a mayoral candidate for Moscow in 2013.
In 2020, the news that Navalny had been poisoned spread around the world. On his way home from Siberia, he was poisoned by the deadly nerve agent Novichok, and was taken to a hospital in Germany for treatment. The Kremlin denies being behind the assassination attempt. In 2021, Navalny chose to go home to Russia, to the great surprise of many. After this, he has been imprisoned in a Russian high-security prison.
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Leonid Volkov is chief of staff for Alexei Navalny and leads the work of the opposition politician from exile in Lithuania. Nettavisen meets Volkov on a March day in Kirkenes, where he is invited to speak during the Kirkenes Conference.
Volkov is clear that it was Navalny’s right to return to Russia. Had he remained in exile in Germany, it would have been a victory for Vladimir Putin.
Isolate
– He is a Russian politician and has done nothing illegal. Why should he give up the fight? Putin’s dream is to have a tool that can deport everyone he doesn’t like, Volkov tells Nettavisen.
Despite the fact that he has been traveling for close to twelve hours, Volkov speaks energetically and with an intense gaze.
– Of course, Navalny knew that he risked being arrested when he went back, but he knew what he had to do, says the chief of staff.
Now Navalny is locked up in solitary confinement in what Volkov describes as deplorable conditions. The only contact he has with the outside world is when he appears in court, which he does regularly and constantly.
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– It is because we are suing the prison for violating his rights. Of course we don’t win, but there are so many violations of rights that we could be sued and imprisoned every single day, says Volkov.
In addition to frequent court appearances, Navalny is also visited by his lawyers. These meetings are closely monitored by prison guards and they are not allowed to exchange documents.
– Nor are they allowed to discuss defense strategies, claims Volkov.
After the talks with Navalny, the lawyers pass on the information to Volkov and his colleagues in Lithuania.
– That is the only communication we have with him, says Volkov.
Navalny can also receive letters, but these are read by the authorities before they reach the imprisoned opposition politician.
Terrible conditions
– He lives in terrible conditions in prison. The Kremlin is trying to isolate him from the outside world and break him down psychologically, but they will never be able to do that, says Volkov firmly.
In the neighboring cell, Navalny has what Volkov describes as a mentally ill person, who screams, makes noise and throws things around at all hours of the day. Navalny’s bed is lifted down from the wall and is only possible to lie in between 21:00 in the evening and 05:00 in the morning.
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– But it is not possible to break Navalny, says Volkov.
– Why hasn’t the regime killed Navalny?
– Well, they have tried to do it in secret. When he was poisoned they tried to do it in a way that would not be detected. When someone dies from Novichok, doctors will conclude that a heart defect is the cause of death. This is how novice shock works, it leaves no trace, says the chief of staff to Nettavisen.
He does not rule out that the regime will eventually get tired of Navalny and kill him in prison.
– We know there are no such orders as of now, but the situation can change. The closest we get to insurance against this is international attention. Keeping Navalny in the spotlight is the only thing that can increase his chances of survival, says Volkov.
The day the international community forgets Navalny, the costs of killing him will not be as great for the regime in Russia.
Sees an end to the regime
– Do you see any end to Putin’s regime?
– Yes of course. We have to be optimistic, otherwise it is completely pointless to do the work we do. Putin’s regime was massively weakened when they went for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That decision was a huge mistake.
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Volkov says he has no problems imagining that the regime could retain power for a long time, but that Putin destroyed the stability and control he has spent over 20 years building up on the night of February 24, 2022.
– Now the army is dissatisfied because they are unable to fulfill the goals they have been given. The elite around Putin are unhappy because they can no longer live as before. Their way of life has been destroyed, and they have lost billions on the war. The population is also dissatisfied, because they receive relatives home in body bags. In addition to this, the sanctions also affect Russians.
Volkov’s analysis is that the political situation in Russia is now more unstable than at any time in the last 20 years. He still does not want to speculate on whether Putin can be overthrown in a month or two.
– We don’t know that. But the chance of that happening has increased drastically. Any blunder Putin makes could be what causes the cup to overflow, Leonid Volkov believes.
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Own security
Leonid Volkov himself is aware that he is a possible target for the Russian regime, but he does not spend much energy worrying about his own safety.
– The risk is there. My colleagues and I work in the leading opposition against the regime and fight against Putin every single day. Of course we are exposed to a certain risk, says Volkov.
He says it’s all about having to make a choice.
– We choose to accept the risk and do the work that needs to be done. Then it’s no use complaining, you have to live as normal a life as possible and accept the risk it entails. I can’t do my job sitting in a bunker.
– It is said that Putin sat in a “corona bunker” for two years before the invasion of Ukraine?
– Yes, and it didn’t go well. I don’t want to end up as crazy as him.
