Report from prison

Yashin: Navalny’s murder is Putin’s election campaign tactic

Opposition member Ilya Yashin during a court hearing

(Bild: APA/AFP/Alexander NEMENOV)

The imprisoned opposition politician and friend of the deceased Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, Ilya Yashin, is convinced that President Vladimir Putin carefully planned the murder of his opponent and left nothing to chance. He addresses journalists with courageous words - and puts his life and limb at risk.

Although the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine was deeply repugnant to him, the avowed Kremlin opponent Ilya Yashin decided not to turn his back on his homeland. He publicly campaigned against the bloodshed instigated by the Russian president and was not sparing with nasty words about the head of state himself. In December 2022, a Moscow court sentenced Yashin to eight and a half years in a penal colony. He is serving his sentence in Smolensk Oblast. It was in this dark place that he learned of the death of his friend Navalny. In a letter to a special correspondent for the exile media outlet "Meduza", he explained why he thinks the Russian authorities killed the opposition leader now of all times.

"It seems as if the worst possible moment was chosen for Navalny's murder," Yashin said. After all, the presidential elections will take place in Russia in a month's time. One would therefore assume that the Kremlin would be keen to have a quiet election campaign. So why now of all times?

A mafioso asserts his power by displaying violence and cruelty - and demonstratively executing the opponent who has dared to challenge him.

Ilja Jaschin

Putin's "fundamentally different point of view"
"Probably our biggest mistake is that we repeatedly misunderstand Putin's motives. We are tempted to look at one situation or another through our eyes, whereas his view is fundamentally different," says Yashin, who is convinced that Navalny's murder was planned and carried out with the elections in mind.

Because in Putin's world view, the death of the leading opposition figure has great symbolic power - it is, so to speak, the main event of the "election campaign". "After all, Putin is not a European politician," warns the courageous Russian from the prison camp.

Ilya Yashin (left) with his friend Alexei Navalny (right):

"Putin is not a European politician"
For a European politician, he says, an election campaign is a public procedure in which the more convincing opponent wins the votes. The Kremlin ruler has a completely different way of thinking. "Strictly speaking, this is not the thinking of a politician or statesman - it is the thinking of a mafia godfather," says Yashin. You have to look at the relevant events from this perspective - in other words, from the point of view of a gang leader who has brought the country under his control. In order to stay in power, steps must be taken to ensure that no one begins to doubt this rule. "A mafioso asserts his power by showing violence and cruelty - and demonstratively executing the opponent who dared to challenge him."

Navalny's murder is therefore a clear signal to the establishment and society as a whole. But hope lives on - as long as at least one person is alive who carries the hope of change in their heart.

"Yes, when you watch the triumph of a bandit who revels in limitless power and impunity, it is hard not to give in to despair. It is also difficult to overcome fear and continue the resistance. But it must be done. Otherwise we ourselves will become the walking dead," warns Yashin.