Alexei Navalny Inquiry: Recognizing the courage, bravery and sacrifice of Alexei Navalny and other political prisoners persecuted by Putin’s Russia

On April 16, 2024, Senator Omidvar spoke to her inquiry calling the attention of the Senate to the courage, resilience and pursuit for justice by Alexi Navalny. Watch her speech:

Hon. Ratna Omidvar: Honourable senators, I rise today to bring to your attention the extraordinary contributions of an extraordinary man in extraordinary times. Alexei Navalny is — and was — such a man.

His death is a blow to all freedom lovers in the world, but it is a body blow to Russians who aspire to the freedoms that we take so much for granted here: freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom to have fair elections and freedom to enjoy peace and security in our lives and those of future generations.

Navalny’s strength was his courage. He did not know fear. Even if he did, he did not give in to it. His life’s work speaks to this. He ferreted out and documented corruption in the state and state actors in Russia. He uncovered corruption within the Russian political sphere, and revealed embezzlement of public funds and questionable dealings at the highest levels of government. He founded the Anti-Corruption Foundation and started to document the deep-rooted systemic misdealings of influential government leaders in Russia. He had the courage to name names and, with his sharp commentary, gained widespread attention and established himself as a voice that could not be ignored. He called out the “crooks and thieves” in the ruling party. He disclosed to the Russian people the existence of Putin’s palace, with its own impregnable fences, its own port, its own security, its own church, its own permit system, a no-fly zone and even its own border checkpoint. He told the Russians that, “It is absolutely a separate state within Russia.” For this, Navalny was relentlessly pursued by the Russian state and imprisoned time and time again.

In a sense, the system’s relentless pursuit of Navalny elevated his persona from that of an online leader to a real and present leader. Despite numerous arrests and sham trials during his quest for transparency and accountability, Navalny persisted in his opposition to the regime. He became even more of a target and was the subject of a completely bizarre poisoning in August 2020. Russian secret agents infected his underwear with the Novichok nerve agent.

When you read about it, that sounds like something straight out of a James Bond 007 movie, but no, it was a real and serious attack on his life.

The poisoning incident emphasized the personal risks Navalny endured in his pursuit of change and sparked calls for an independent investigation. His survival of the attack further solidified his image as a resilient figure standing up against powerful adversaries. Despite this attempt on his life, Navalny decided to go back to Russia, knowing very clearly that he would be arrested on arrival.

It’s hard to understand this decision and his state of mind, but he said:

I don’t want to give up either my country or my beliefs. I cannot betray either the first or the second. If your beliefs are worth something, you must be willing to stand up to them. And if necessary, make sacrifices.

Alexei spent the next years in the harshest detention, solitary confinement and unbearable prison conditions. Despite this, he never wavered in expressing his hopes and aspirations for a free and democratic Russia. His tenacity in the face of adversity served as an inspiration to numerous individuals aspiring to foster a more just and accountable Russia, both inside and outside Russia. He had a vision for Russia — a vision that I think all of us, all humankind, can align themselves with. He said:

I want Russia to be as wealthy as it has the potential to be. I want this wealth to be distributed fairly. I want us to have normal health care. I want to see men —

 — I’m sure he meant women as well —

— live long enough to retire: these days, half don’t make it. I want us to have a normal education system, and I want all people to get an education.

For all of this, we know he lost his life.

His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, and his many followers have vowed to continue in his footsteps and keep his vision for Russia alive. She has said:

I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny. . . . I urge you to stand next to me. . . . We need to make use of every opportunity. To fight against the war, against corruption, against injustice. To fight for fair elections and free speech. To fight to get our country back.

Sadly, colleagues, Alexei Navalny is not alone. There are thousands of others who rot in these unbearable, harsh Siberian prisons. Honorary Canadian citizen Vladimir Kara-Murza is one of them. You will remember that last year this chamber, along with the other place, conferred honorary Canadian citizenship to him. I believe honorary Canadian citizenship has only previously been granted to seven other individuals.

Why did we do this? First, because he deserved it, but second, because we wanted to provide him with protection, and honorary citizenship provides that protection.

We can go one step further. We can actually confer the citizenship on him in the House of Commons, as we have done with Malala Yousafzai and others. Although we know that Russia would never allow him to come and accept the citizenship, his wife, Evgenia Kara-Murza, who has been in this chamber and who has been recognized in this chamber, would be a proxy for his life and would underline the fact, once again, that Canada believes in his freedom and in his protection by doing so.

We have other tools to hold Russia accountable too. We can hold them accountable where it hurts — in their pocketbooks. Russia has close to $400 billion in assets squirrelled away in Western financial systems. It is time to coordinate and work with our G7 partners, seize those assets and use them to compensate for the crimes Russia is committing against the Ukrainian people. Our government should act urgently on this front and, as a stroke of irony, name this action the Navalny act.

In closing, I go back to Navalny’s signature quality: his fearlessness. He did not fear Putin, and neither should we. Like Navalny, we need to show courage and fearlessness when faced with a dictator who acts with impunity, who declares war on a sovereign nation, and who gets to make, keep and hide money while thousands suffer.

Honourable senators, giving into fear would dishonour Navalny’s legacy. I urge this chamber to stand up and have both the courage and the fearlessness that he demonstrated.