Убийцы из ФСБ судят Навального

The sentence will be read in twenty-four hours and I want to say several words before it's read. I just want to put several figures in a context.

It's going to be a huge term. This is what's called a «Stalinist» term. The formula for calculating it is simple: what the prosecutor asked for minus 10-15%. They asked for 20 years so they will give 18 or something around it. It doesn't really matter, because the terrorism case is on the way. I could get another 10 years there.

So my first request is. When the figure is announced, please do not show solidarity with me with wails and cries: «As under Stalin». It is better to show solidarity with me and other political prisoners by thinking for a minute. Think about why such an exemplary huge term is necessary. Its main purpose is to intimidate. You, not me. I'll even say this: you personally, who are reading these words.

Have you noticed that the propaganda is silent about this process? They don't talk about it on TV. Just because the story will have an ambiguous effect on the «ordinary Russian». Eighteen years for some «extremism» without victims and consequences will seem obviously unfair to this person, and he or she will even start to secretly sympathize. You all know everything. You need to be stunned, intimidated. The severity of the sentence should knock out of your head any thoughts of resistance.

Please consider and realize that by jailing hundreds, Putin is trying to intimidate millions. We live in a country where tens of millions of people right now are against corruption, war, and lawlessness. Right now, tens of millions are in favor of fair elections, democracy, change of power and want Putin gone. We know for sure that if one in ten of those outraged by the corruption of Putin and his officials took to the streets, the government would fall tomorrow. We know for sure that if those who are against the war took to the streets, they would stop it immediately.

It's all just wishful thinking. It doesn't work that way. Someone has to be first, and it's scary to be the first. Russia is not an exception. It's just that dissatisfied people don't take to the streets in countries with dictatorial regimes almost to the very end of those regimes: not in our country, not in the USSR, not in Iran, not in Cuba, not in the GDR. All changes are achieved by 10% of citizens — the most active ones. That is you. To repress (imprison, punish, fine) even 10% from them — that's one and a half million people — is now impossible neither politically nor organizationally. So we need to daze and intimidate them, to discourage them from doing anything.

This Putin's (in fact any dictator's) strategy works. One example. The main invulnerability of our organization has always been that we have never been cut off from money: we are financed by tens, hundreds of thousands of people in small payments. You can't cut it off. However, by inflating the cases of financing extremism (one of the accusations on which I will be sentenced tomorrow), the authorities have achieved the fact that it has become «a little bit risky» to support our organization from inside Russia, which is 95% of our donors. Finances are the basis of activity, you can't get anywhere without them. The intimidation worked perfectly. I remind you, by the way, that here are instructions on how to support us anonymously and safely through cryptocurrency if you are in Russia and here is the link to support us if you are not.

To be honest, we always help Putin's strategy of intimidation by throwing hysterics and clutching at our hearts over every arrest, and frightening both ourselves and others even more. We must talk about everyone, and we must not forget about anyone, but at the same time, we must firmly realize that power in Russia has been usurped and illegally seized. Those in power can't hold it without arresting the innocent. They imprison hundreds to intimidate millions.

This should be treated cold-bloodedly. Putin must not achieve his goal. I really want him not to achieve his goal in terms of sentencing me either. Therefore, my request number two is: when the sentence is announced, please think about only one, really important thought — what else can I personally do to resist? To stop the villains and thieves in the Kremlin from destroying my country and my future? What can I do, weighing all the risks and taking into account all the circumstances?

The third request is the most important. When answering this question to yourself, please do not dare to say, «Nothing.» You surely can. Everyone can do something. Talk to your neighbors, and put up a flyer. Share with others our investigations. Send 500 rubles a month to us or other opposition organizations and media. Do a blog. Participate in our The Good Truth Machine 2 project, and spread awareness on your social media. Support political prisoners. Paint graffiti. Go to a rally.

There is no shame in choosing the safest way to resist. There is shame in doing nothing. It's shameful to let yourself be intimidated. Whatever sentence they have planned, it will not achieve its goal. If you have understood what it is all about and you answered, «I am not afraid», do your own daily cold-blooded, small contribution to the fight for freedom in Russia.

Acknowledgements:

Thank you all, of course. Everything that happens to me is much easier to handle because I feel your support every day and every minute.

Many thanks to this part of common sense in the legal madness called «trial in prison», which will end tomorrow. To my lawyers Olga Mikhailova, Vadim Kobzev, Alexander Fedulov and Danya Kholodny's lawyer Svetlana Davydova. They are fighting like lions.

To the defense witnesses: Stupin, Kara-Murza, Roizman, Chanysheva, Ostanin, Gorinov, Yashin, Muratov, Demchuk, Golikov, Nikolaenko, Popov, Moroz.

4. Special thanks to my main personal inspiration in this process. It is my accomplice Danya Kholodny, a 25-year-old guy who accidentally got into this meat grinder.

The technician of Navalny LIVE channel, from whom the «organizer» of the extremist community was molded — along with me, Volkov and Zhdanov. I, unfortunately, hardly knew him, because this guy was turning on the wires on the airwaves.

Danya had already served a year and a half in jail. Unlike me, they took him to the trial in handcuffs. At lunchtime, he was taken away and chained to some wall. During the investigation, they offered him freedom many times in exchange for testimony against everyone. To these offers, Kholodny remained cold. Kholodny is in a good mood, cheerful, and doesn't lose his spirit. Most importantly — he understands why this process was invented but doesn't let himself be intimidated and break his will. Be like him.