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Imprisoned Russian oppositionist discloses his life behind bars

“Pskov prison specialises in psychological violence. The guards do not beat prisoners, but force them to watch TV five times a day,” Alexey Navalny, a Russian oppositionist, told the “New York Times” daily in an interview from the prison. He also called the Putin regime “a historical accident, not an inevitability.”

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As the politician assessed, the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to kill him proves that he “lost his mind” and is “a classic example of a semi-mad tsar.”

“We know that the killers of the FSB [the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union’s KGB] started following me… literally the day I announced my plan to run for president,” Mr Navalny pointed out.

“Is this a smart move? Seriously, order the security services to kill a political opponent with chemical weapons? Not a very brilliant idea. But Putin did it because he is possessed by his own fears and ideas,” he stressed.

As he stated, although the facility in which he is imprisoned was known for the torture of prisoners in the past, he has not heard of any case of beatings, adding that the facility’s specialty is psychological violence.

“I have not heard of them hitting someone – on the contrary, by constantly provoking, they put you in a position where you have to beat someone else, hit someone or threaten someone. And when that happens… the [prison’s] administration will be pleased to open a new criminal case, adding several years to the sentence,” he said, adding that prisoners are also forced to watch Kremlin TV five times a day.

“I most clearly understand the essence of the ideology of the Putin regime: The present and the future are being substituted with the past – the truly heroic past, or embellished past, or completely fictional past. All sorts of past must constantly be in the spotlight to displace thoughts about the future and questions about the present,” the politician said.

Mr Navalny pointed out that although the elections in Russia “became more and more of a joke”… the Russians should still take part in them. His opinion, thanks to the tactical voting system adopted by the country’s opposition, its candidates are still able to win in big cities, where it is more difficult for the elections to be rigged.

Mr Navalny stated that “the Putin regime is a historical accident, not an inevitability.”

“Sooner or later, this mistake will be fixed, and Russia will move on to a democratic, European path of development. Simply because that is what the people want,” he pointed out.

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