– The only question is whether Russia will go to hell or not – VG

Dressed in a prisoner uniform, gesticulating eagerly, Alexei Navalny (46) faces a tough showdown with Putin’s regime on Tuesday.

The opposition leader, considered Vladimir Putin’s worst internal enemy, takes the opportunity to attack the Kremlin and war when he is given the floor in a digital appeal case in a Moscow court:

– We haven’t been able to prevent the disaster. The only question is whether Russia will go to hell or not, says Navalny, according to independent media Jellyfish.

A court on Tuesday dismissed his second appeal against the nine-year sentence he received in March this year. Navalny believes the ruling is purely politically conditioned and points to President Vladimir Putin, former President Dmitry Medvedev and others in the regime, all subjects revelations of the Navalny anti-corruption organization:

– After destroying the country for the past 22 years, they start a war to divert attention from the collapse of the country, and then they lose that war, thunders Alexei Navalny.

– I was sentenced to nine years in prison in a strict penal colony. A person who commits a murder in this country is sentenced to an average of seven years in prison. I was given nine years of rigorous imprisonment, suggesting that I apparently committed some truly horrific crimes. And it seems all the more strange that there are no casualties in the case, says the man who is considered the main leader of the Russian opposition.

He points out that the trial against him and the start of the war in Ukraine took place around the same time:

– This was actually just a microscopic crime compared to a serious crime, which was prepared and then implemented in the same days, says Navalny – and therefore we are talking about war.

– That is, the huge crime committed by the current regime and in particular by President Putin against our entire country. As part of the preparation for this crime, they began imprisoning those they knew would oppose it, Navalny continues.

– I have said from day one that our regime has started a criminal war and will lose it. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing now. They are already losing, says the opposition leader.

He was arrested when he landed at Moscow airport on January 17, 2021, after being treated at the Charité hospital in Berlin. According to Western experts, Navalny was tried to kill him with nerve agent Novichok as he was returning home from an election trip to Siberia in August 2020. According to Navalny himself, FSB agents were behind it.

Last week, the Navalny anti-corruption organization announced that it will try to reopen its offices in Russia. The aim is to fight the war in Ukraine. It was Navalny’s close ally, Ivan Zhdanov, who did it told in a video on social media.

Before and after the invasion that began in February, virtually all of Putin’s top critics disappeared, either in exile or in prison.

Three opposition leaders who have chosen to remain in Russia have all been jailed and face severe penalties:

Russian authorities have labeled Navalny’s organization as extremist, which means that staff, volunteers and supporters could be prosecuted and jailed.

According to Alexei Navalny, both the witnesses and the judge in the trial against him were subjected to pressure:

– We found out that one of the leaders of the presidential administration called the judge. Literally every break they talked on the phone, the opposition leader said in his speech on Tuesday.