- Navalny Forced to Listen: Russian opposition leader subjected to daily broadcast of Putin’s speech
- Speech for Educational Purposes: Prison officials claim the speech contains “instructions on educational work”
- Navalny’s Imprisonment: Critic of Putin serving 11.5 years, faces additional charges
Prison officials warned the Russian opposition leader that the speech will be aired for instructional purposes into 2023.
Jailed Alexei Navalny, a Putin critic, claims he has listened to the same speech for over 100 days.
Prison officials informed the Russian opposition leader, aged 47, that the 1 hour 46 minute-long speech was broadcast daily outside his cell because it contained “instructions on educational work.”
On the 100th day of hearing President Putin’s speech to the nation from February of this year. Mr. Navalny tweeted that he has been told he must listen to the speech until the end of 2023.
Once Putin delivers his next annual address, they will begin playing it for us, said Mr. Navalny.
In his address to the Federal Assembly in Moscow, President Putin asserts that the “special military operation” – which is how Russia refers to the conflict in Ukraine – was conducted to “eliminate the threat posed by the neo-Nazi regime.
He asserted that Russia did “everything possible” to resolve disputes through “peaceful means” and accused the West of arming Ukraine in preparation for a “major conflict.”
Mr. Navalny is presently serving a total of 11.5 years in prison for charges including fraud.
He appeared in court last month to face up to 30 years in prison for creating an extremist organisation.
Mr. Navalny has made sarcastic pleas to Russian jail officials since being imprisoned in Melekhovo.
The bizarre requests included a kangaroo as a pet, a massage chair, a container of moonshine, and a karate black belt for an inmate who “killed a man with his bare hands.”
After returning from Germany in January 2021, Mr. Navalny was imprisoned for the first time.
He was poisoned with novichok while campaigning in Siberia and felt ill on a journey to Moscow.
In Russia, his campaign organizations were labeled “extremist” and outlawed.
