Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny condemned the Russian elite for corruption in its ranks, expressing his hatred for those who lost a historic opportunity to reform society after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Agerpres reports.

In an impassioned essay in response to his sentence of up to 19 years in prison – that is, the 47-year-old opponent will be in prison for up to 74 years – Oleksiy Navalny said that sometimes he hates a loser.

He analyzed the post-Soviet history of Russia, including the legacy of the most influential figures of the 1990s, such as the so-called reformers who tried to lay the foundations of capitalism, and the oligarchs who amassed incredible fortunes.

“I cannot stop hating, fiercely, madly, those who sold, abused and squandered the historic chance our country had in the early 1990s,” Navalny said in his most significant address since his sentencing last week.

Yeltsin, Chubais and the whole party gang who called themselves “democrats”

Alexei Navalny said that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian elite sold the future of Europe for the useless benefits of a corrupt despotism: luxurious villas, the wealth of oligarchs and what he called a “fake election” in which Boris Yeltsin won a second presidential term in 1996.

According to him, Russian leaders preferred wealth in US dollars instead of building any kind of democracy or learning the lessons of the Soviet past.

He expressed his hatred for those in power in the 1990s, mainly mentioning Boris Yeltsin, the architect of economic reform, Anatoly Chubais, and “the oligarchs and the whole Komsomol party gang (not Komsomol) who called themselves ‘democrats.’ ‘”.

Yeltsin, who died in 2007, is Russia’s most powerful leader since the 1990s, and some oligarchs have admitted they have made many mistakes but said they face a chaotic situation and are sometimes forced to make hasty and radical decisions.

According to Navalny, corruption under Yeltsin led to repression under his successor, Vladimir Putin. “If the rules of the game are such that you can steal, lie, forge, censor, and all the courts are under our control, they thought, ‘We’re here and we can use it to our advantage.’ “- he said. said Navalny.

“Russia will have another chance,” but it cannot be lost again

A former lawyer, Oleksiy Navalny became a household name more than a decade ago, ridiculing Putin’s elite and alleging massive corruption.

Navalny’s supporters see him as the Russian version of Nelson Mandela, who will one day get out of prison and lead the country.

Russian authorities perceive him and his supporters as extremists with ties to the CIA who are trying to destabilize Russia. His movement was outlawed, forcing many of his followers to flee abroad.

Navalny said that he read the book “Do not be afraid of evil” by the Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky. Later Sharanskyi was exchanged and moved to Israel.

“I know that Russia will have another chance. This is a historical process. We will find ourselves at a crossroads again,” Navalny also claimed, adding that he sometimes wakes up in prison in a cold sweat because of the worry that this will also be wasted.

Read also:

• Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in prison, as he predicted / International reactions
• Navalny: My sentence is not for me, but for you / Do not lose the will to resist