Benedict Cumberbatch reads one of Alexei Navalny's final letters

[Music] 17th of January 2024 exactly 3 years ago I returned to Russia after undergoing treatment for poisoning at the airport I was arrested and here I am three years in and for three years I've been answering the same question inmates ask it plainly and directly prison Administration staff cautiously with the recorders off why did you come back in answering this question and I even feel a slight annoyance of two kinds the first at myself for not being able to find such words that everyone would understand and stop asking the second at Russian politics over the last decades which has so inculcated Society with cynicism and conspiracy theory that people fundamentally do not believe in simple motives like if you came back you must have made a deal with someone it just didn't work out or hasn't worked out yet there must be some cunning plan involving the towers of the Kremlin in any case there's some secret underpinning after all everything in politics is not at all as it seems but there are no secrets or schemes it's actually very simple I have my country and my convictions and I don't want to renounce either my country or my convictions and I cannot betray either the first or the second if your convictions are worth anything you should be ready to stand up for them and if necessary make some sacrifices and if you're not ready then you have no convictions at all you just think you do but those are not convictions and principles Just Thoughts in your head of course this does not mean that everyone who is not currently in jail has no convictions everyone pays their own own price and for many it's so so high without jail I participated in elections and aspired to leadership positions a different standard applies to me I traveled across the country and declared from the stage everywhere I promise I will not let you down I will not deceive you and I will not abandon you by returning I fulfilled my promise to my voters after all there must eventually be those in Russia who do not lie to them it so happens that in Russia now for my right to have and not hide my convictions I must pay by sitting in solitary confinement and of course I don't like sitting but I will not renounce either my ideas or my homeland my convictions are not exotic sectarian or radical on the contrary everything I believe is based on science and historical experience power should change hands the best way to choose a government is through honest and free elections everyone needs a fair Judiciary corruption destroys the state there should should be no censorship these principles are the future and now sectarians and marginals are in power generally they have no ideas their only goal is to cling to their seats perfected hypocrisy allows them to adapt and adopt any disguise thus polygamists have become conservatives members of the Communist Party have become Orthodox Christians owners of of golden passports and offshore accounts have become aggressive Patriots lies lies and nothing but lies it will collapse and fall apart Putin's state is unviable one day we'll look at its place and it will be gone Victory is inevitable but for now we must not give up and hold on to our convictions

Channel: Letters Live

Views: 352,043

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Id: 25qEVGqPwLk

Length: 5min 14sec (314 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 07 2024