In his first public statement after his latest trial that ended with a conviction and a 19-year sentence on extremism charges last week, Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny lashed out at Russia's post-Soviet ruling class, saying, "I fiercely, madly hate all those who sold, drank away, wasted the historic chance our country had at the beginning of the 1990s."
In a statement titled My Fears And Hatred, which was posted on his website on August 11, Navalny said he feels hatred toward Russia's first president, the late Boris Yeltsin, and other officials who failed to implement proper democratic reforms in the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union and brought Vladimir Putin to power.
"I hate swindlers, whom we for some reason called reformers. Now, it is crystal clear that they did nothing but scheming and thought solely about their own wealth. Are there other countries where so many ministers of 'reformist governments' became millionaires and billionaires? I hate the authors of the most stupid, authoritarian constitution, which was cheaply sold to us idiots as a democratic one, handing the president powers of an absolute monarch from the outset," Navalny's statement said.
Navalny also criticized the "so-called independent media" and "democratic society" for "supporting the rigged [presidential] election of 1996."
"I hate everyone from the leadership of Russia, who after the 1991 coup and the 1993 shelling of the parliament building had full-fledged powers but didn't even try to carry out democratic reforms," Navalny wrote.
Navalny said that Russian society in its entirety has to learn to reject corruption.
"Only then will we be able to properly use another chance -- which we surely will have again," he said.
On August 4, judges of the Moscow City Court convicted Navalny on extremism charges and sentenced him to 19 years in prison, ruling that his previously handed prison sentences will be served concurrently in Russia's harshest prison regime.
Navalny, his allies, rights groups, and Western governments say all charges are politically motivated.