What he was writing to friends from prison about Trump and Biden’s health 2024-02-23 16:57:18

The late opponent of Putin had characterized the political “agenda” of the former president of the USA, Donald Trump, for a second term as “truly scary”.

The 47-year-old head of the Russian opposition had expressed his concern regarding Trump’s re-election in the US, in a letter to a friend.

At the same time, referring to the state of health of the current president of the USA, Joe Biden, he threw down the gauntlet to the Democrats for inaction in the event that the actual 81-year-old candidate wins the November elections.

For his part, former US President Donald Trump briefly referred to Navalny’s death yesterday, in a post on the “Truth Social” platform.

“Alexei Navalny, the dissident and political enemy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, spent the last years of his life behind bars but managed to remain connected to the outside world. His sudden death made me more and more aware of what is happening in our country. Slowly and steadily, radical left-wing politicians, prosecutors and judges are leading us down a path to destruction.”

Letters from the last months of Navalny’s life, obtained by the New York Times, show that the husband of his beloved Yulia and mother of their two children, although he has been in prison since January 2021, has managed to stay informed regarding what was happening internationally, including the US.

In a letter sent to his friend, photographer Evgeny Feldman, Navalny called former President Donald Trump’s strategy for a second term in the White House “truly scary,” according to the New York Times.

If President Joe Biden has a health problem, then “Trump will be president,” Navalny explains, adding, “Isn’t that an obvious thing regarding the Democrats?”

In another letter to Feldman, dated Dec. 3, he reiterated fears regarding Trump and asked his friend, “Please name a current politician you admire.”

Journalist Sergei Parkhomenko received a letter from Navalny on February 13, just days before Russian authorities announced his death. In the letter, which Parkhomenko posted on Facebook, Navalny talked regarding books, saying he only had access to classics in his new prison. “Who might tell me that Chekhov is the most depressing Russian writer?” he had written.

Days following the death of Alexei Navalny was first reported, information regarding what happened to the Russian president’s rival, Vladimir Putin, remains sparse. According to Russian accounts, the 47-year-old took a short walk around his Siberian prison, said he felt unwell, then collapsed and never regained consciousness.
On Saturday, Navalny’s family confirmed that the political activist died at 14:17 local time on Friday, February 16.

Authorities at the prison where he was being held said he suffered from “sudden death syndrome,” his team said. It is unclear whether an autopsy has yet been performed on his body.

It is also unclear where his body is. Navalny’s mother, Ludmila, who arrived in the area on Saturday, visited the morgue in the town of Salekhard near the prison, where she was told his body had been taken.
The politician’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said that Ludmila was not allowed to enter the premises and that her son’s lawyer was pushed out of the building.

Staff did not confirm if his body was there. According to Ms. Yarmysh, a Russian commission’s investigation into the death has been extended indefinitely. She had already been told by officials that Navalny’s body would not be released until the investigation was completed.

Navalny’s condition had deteriorated during his three years in prison, where he complained that he was denied medical care and spent nearly 300 days in solitary confinement. By the time of his arrest in January 2021, he had spent months recovering from the nerve agent attack.

Even so, he appeared in relatively good spirits and health in a court video the day before his death. International public opinion does not seem to agree with Russia’s account of what happened to him in IK-3, or “Polar Wolf” – one of Russia’s northernmost and harshest prisons, the BBC notes. The French foreign minister said Navalny “paid with his life for his resistance to Russian oppression”, adding that his death was a reminder of the “reality of Vladimir Putin’s regime”.

Navalny’s mother said her son was “alive, healthy and happy” when she last saw him on February 12, in a Facebook post cited by the Novaya Gazeta newspaper.

Russia’s Interfax news agency reports that doctors spent half an hour trying to revive him. According to prison authorities, medics were with him within two minutes and an ambulance was available within six.

The state-run RT network – which is banned in many Western countries – reported the possibility of blood clots. Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said “doctors have to somehow figure it out.”

He complained of severe back pain, fever and numbness in his legs. He spoke of being sleep-deprived due to hourly “check-ups” by guards shining flashlights into his eyes, and he had still not gotten over the serious effects of the nerve agent attack.

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