Navalny Sentenced to Work Camp Near Moscow

By Hikmet Aksoy, Staff Writer
March 23, 2021

Alexei Navalny is a Russian lawyer and politician who is quickly gaining popularity around the world for his documentaries on the corruption of the Russian government.  

Recently, he has made headlines because of his imprisonment after getting poisoned and having to take time off to heal in a German hospital.

Even though he has recently become popular worldwide, his history of fighting corruption spans for almost a decade.

For the last couple of years, he has been creating documentaries about the corruption that has been plaguing the Russian government since Vladimir Putin took power back in 2000.

In 2013, he tried to run for office but was blocked by the government because of a prior offense. This is because the Russian government forbids criminals from running for office.

He first brought government corruption to light by posting on his blog in 2010, talking about an embezzlement scheme of a government-owned oil pipeline operator.

Ever since his first documentaries, he has been working on exposing the injustice that has been happening throughout the Russian government.

He has gained a lot of attention recently from becoming sick on a flight back to Moscow from Siberia on August 20, 2020. 

According to CNN, Navalny was poisoned during the flight back to Moscow, and the plane was forced to make an emergency landing in a nearby city. However, in the fear of corruption, he was later moved to a hospital in Germany.

A couple of days later, the German government released an official statement detailing the poisoning that Navalny had suffered.

After 10 days passed, he finally got out of a coma, and around a month after his poisoning, on September 23, he was discharged from the hospital.

On December 17, Putin released a statement about the topic saying that it was a setup and that the government was not involved with this attack.

Only a matter of days later, Navalny released a video clip of him having a phone call with an ex-FSB (The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation) agent who detailed the process of poisoning Navalny on the flight.

Around a month later, Navalny announced that he would be returning to Russia, after months of treatment in Germany, and was detained literally moments after arriving in Moscow and put into custody for 30 days.

Once he returned to Russia, he released another documentary about Putin’s $1.4 billion mansion on the coast of the Black Sea, and the video became a viral hit on social media.

On February 2, 2021, the Moscow court sentenced him to 2.5 years in prison for the violation of his probationary terms back in 2014.

According to The Guardian, Navalny has been placed in a work camp around 100 km from Moscow, and he has also posted a photo of himself online detailing the treatment that he has experienced in the prison.

 “I think the attempted murder and the re-imprisonment of Mr. Navalny is outrageous to say the least,” said Thomas Mohan, Wayne Hills history teacher. “It reflects the political/social climate in Russia under Putin. As the world hopefully becomes less reliant on fossil fuels, Russia’s reliance on oil/gas revenues will begin to hurt the Putin regime (unfortunately, at the same time hurting the Russian people) which may cause him to become even more aggressive in his autocratic actions. I also think that it may cause greater, more sustained opposition from the Russian people who may look to Mr. Navalny to help organize and lead the opposition movement,” Mohan added.
Although it has been difficult, Navalny’s campaign against the corruption of his nation is an uphill battle that has many different obstacles to pass, but only time will tell if his campaign will be successful.