Vladimir Region, Russia (TEH) – In a fervent letter from his prison colony, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has unleashed a blistering attack on the political figures of the 1990s, particularly targeting former President Boris Yeltsin and his associates. This marks Navalny’s first written communication since being sentenced to 19 years under a special regime for extremism.
Navalny’s letter, filled with impassioned rhetoric, accuses Yeltsin and his so-called reformers of squandering Russia’s historical chance for democracy in the early nineties. Instead, he argues, they paved the way for Vladimir Putin’s rise to power, the rampant corruption in Russia, and the establishment of a dictatorship.
“I hate furiously those who sold, drank away, squandered the historical chance that our country had in the early nineties. I hate Yeltsin with ‘Tanya and Valya’ (Yeltsin’s daughter Tatyana Dyachenko and her husband Valentin Yumashev – RS), Chubais and the rest of the corrupt family who put Putin in power. I hate swindlers whom we for some reason called reformers. Now it’s clear as day that they didn’t do anything except intrigues and their own well-being … I hate the authors of the stupidest authoritarian constitution, which we idiots were sold as democratic, even then giving the president the powers of a full-fledged monarch,” Navalny wrote.
He further alleged that the 1996 presidential election was rigged, not under Putin in 2011, but under Yeltsin, Chubais, and the oligarchs. According to Navalny, Russia’s path in 1994 led not to Europe but to Central Asia.
Navalny’s letter also criticizes various contemporary figures such as Ksenia Sobchak, Alexei Venediktov, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, accusing them of acting unprincipled or in the interests of the authorities, despite oppositional rhetoric.
The letter has sparked a lively debate on social media. While some support Navalny’s stance, others, like Kirill Martynov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta. Europe, has reproached the letter for factual errors, even suggesting that it might not have been written by Navalny himself.
Alexei Navalny is currently serving a 9-year sentence on fraud charges in a colony in the Vladimir region. Last week, he was sentenced to an additional 19 years in a special regime colony on charges of creating an extremist community. Both Navalny and international human rights activists consider his persecution to be politically motivated.
The new verdict has not yet entered into force, and Navalny’s associates maintain that he is the author of all the publications appearing on his social media accounts.
