My Thoughts on the Death of Alexei Navalny

It is a strange feeling to confront a foreseen tragedy. Part of you genuinely wonders why you are in such shock: was there really any other alternative? Or did you simply fail to prepare yourself for the inevitable one?

Was there really any other alternative for Alexei Navalny, Putin’s most outspoken critic and political opponent? Was there any other alternative other than death?

Death was the end of all those who publicly spoke up against the corruption and the crimes of Putin’s regime, whether it was by gunshot (Anna Politkovskaya), poison (Alexandr Litvinenko), or long-term imprisonment (Sergei Magnitsky), among others.

But I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I have sometimes fantasized about a not-too-distant future where Vladimir Putin would finally meet his demise, where Russia would finally see a fair election again, and, who knows, where Navalny himself could rise to be the next President of a New Russia.

Now, I am embarrassed at my naïvety.

On Friday, the Russian authorities announced that Alexei Navalny collapsed after a walk in the penal colony he was being detained in, that all medical attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful, and that he was shortly declared dead afterward.

No words came from the Kremlin, even though Putin made a public appearance later that day in the region of Chelyabinsk, south of Ekaterinburg.

Alexei’s body has yet to be delivered to his family. Or to be officially located, for that matter.

Navalny is not the first Russian public figure to meet a tragic end after standing up to Putin, and he won’t be the last.

For years, I have been observing a country and a people I deeply love and where I spent some of the happiest moments of my life slowly turning into a real-life Orwellian dystopia. I stopped watching or listening to any of Putin’s interviews or public appearances because the mere sight or sound of this mass murderer makes me sick. Like millions of others — Russians, Ukrainians, and people from all over the world — I want the fascist slaughterhouse to be over.

But the end seems nowhere in sight.

One more day means more death, more violence, more torture, and more massacre. How international organizations whose very existence was meant to prevent such atrocities from ever occurring again have failed to do so is beyond me.

The grief of the events that are happening in Ukraine, Russia, and neighboring countries is different for each individual, but it is a grief that has taken a toll on many, and that grows heavier day by day.

The scope of Putin’s victims is in no way limited to those who are now deceased or close to being so. This man’s actions have had and keep having deep and heart-wrenching repercussions for millions of people whose existence is now much closer to survival than to actual life.

There is only so much death that one can tolerate.

And there’s only so much one can take as a powerless and voiceless bystander, while the Kremlin war machine muffles any sound of reason with shots of firearms, bombings, and the screams of innocent victims.

Putin is a mass murderer and a genocider the likes of which haven’t been seen in Europe since Hitler and Stalin.

He deserves to meet justice.

His countless victims, including Navalny, deserve that their sacrifices be not in vain.

Russia deserves to be free.

Россия будет свободной.