Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny has published principles of his political platform entitled “15 theses of a Russian citizen who desires the best for their country” on his website.
“President Putin has unleashed an unjust war of aggression against Ukraine under ridiculous pretexts. He is desperately trying to make this a ‘people’s war’, seeking to turn all Russian citizens into his accomplices, but his attempts are failing. There are almost no volunteers for this war, so Putin’s army has to rely on convicts and forcibly mobilised people. The real reasons for this war are the political and economic problems within Russia, Putin’s desire to hold on to power at any cost, and his obsession with his own historical legacy. He wants to go down in history as ‘the conqueror tsar’ and ‘the collector of lands’,” he says in the first two points.
The politician particularly calls to reestablish borders of Ukraine as they were agreed on and recognised by Russia in 1991 following the Soviet Union’s collapse.
“[Russia] must recognize them today as well. There is nothing to discuss here. Almost all borders in the world are more or less accidental and cause someone’s discontent.
But in the twenty-first century, we cannot start wars just to redraw them. Otherwise, the world will sink into chaos,”
the politician notes.
He also believes that Ukraine is entitled to develop as its nation desires, aggression must be stopped, and all Russian troops must be withdrawn from the country’s territory. Moreover, Navalny suggests sitting down at the negotiating table with Ukraine, the US, the EU, and the UK to look for acceptable ways to compensate for the damages inflicted on Ukraine.
“Russia is a vast country with a shrinking population and dying out rural areas. Imperialism and the urge to seize territory is the most harmful and destructive path. Once again, the Russian government is destroying our future with its own hands just in order to make our country look bigger on the map. But Russia is big enough as it is. Our objective should be preserving our people and developing what we have in abundance,” Navalny’s principles read.
On 17 January 2021, Navalny returned to Russia from Berlin where he was treated after Novichok poisoning. Shortly before landing, his plane was diverted to a different Moscow airport than originally planned. The opposition politician was detained at the border control and taken to a detention centre. Navalny is currently serving a prison term in Russia’s Vladimir region. He was sentenced for nine years behind bars for “embezzlement” and three and a half years more in the Yves Rocher case.
