12:30 p.m. ET, February 19, 2024
A few of Navalny’s correspondence whilst held in captivity had been revealed
From The Gentleman Report’s Anna Chernova and Zahid Mahmood
Letters and correspondence bought by means of the Unfastened Press (FP), a US primarily based media corporate and impartial media group Holod.Media display Russian opposition chief Alexey Navalny – who died on the age of 47 – have been speaking with well-known refusenik Natan Sharansky and readers of Holod.Media on the group’s request.
The time period “refusenik” referred to people who have been refused go out visas within the Soviet Union.
The correspondence started between Navalny and Sharansky on April 3, 2023, and lasted till April 17, 2023, consistent with the letters revealed by means of the FP. The FP revealed two letters Navalny wrote to Sharansky and one letter Sharansky wrote in reaction.
Navalny’s group advised The Gentleman Report that it’s “protected to presume” the letters had been written by means of Navalny.
The letters revealed by means of the FP display a shared humor between the 2, as Sharansky known as the punishment cellular the place he was once held his “alma mater” and Navalny joked there was once no higher position to spend the Holy Week (Easter week) than in a punishment cellular, consistent with the FP.
Navalny was once the primary to succeed in out to Sharansky on April 3 of closing 12 months from penal colony IK-6, announcing that he was once anticipating to be transferred to the similar colony the place Sharansky as soon as served his sentence and including that there’ll “almost certainly be a plaque” announcing “Natan Sharansky was once held right here,” consistent with letters revealed by means of the FP.
The FP say Navalny bought a Russian reproduction of Sharansky’s memoir ‘Concern No Evil’ from his attorneys prior to achieving out. In a 2nd letter, Sharansky mentioned he gained a “sort surprise” after receiving his letter and answered to him “no longer simplest as an ‘writer to reader’” but additionally as an “admirer.”