Earlier today, Lisbon became the first city in Europe to unveil a permanent memorial to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Located just 100 meters from the Russian Embassy, the monument is engraved with “Don’t give up!” in three languages — Portuguese, English, and Navalny’s native Russian.
The words echoed the final message from the Oscar-winning documentary “Navalny.” When asked what he would say to people if he were killed, Navalny responded, “I’ve got something very obvious to tell you. You’re not allowed to give up. If they decide to kill me, it means we are incredibly strong.”
At the unveiling in Lisbon, Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, thanked those who made the memorial possible:
“This truly means a lot to me. I appreciate it deeply. This is likely the first permanent memorial in Alexei’s honor. Thank you to all the activists here in Lisbon for making this happen. It’s also very important that you’re here together supporting each other. I am, of course, deeply grateful for your remembrance of Alexei. It means a great deal to me, it means a great deal to our family.”
João Batalha, an anti-corruption and governance expert and founding member of Transparency International Portugal, spoke of the broader implications of Navalny’s imprisonment and death:
“We now know that Putin killed Alexei so that he wouldn’t have to release him in a prisoner exchange. So, it was not just a crime against Alexei, against the Russian opposition, against the Russian people; it was a crime against the very idea of freedom and democracy. That’s why this cause should unite us all, and why I’m also very grateful and proud to see this memorial here. The Putin regime threatens not just the freedom of the Russian and Ukrainian people, but also the freedom of Europeans everywhere. This fight is ours too.”
The monument’s installation was proposed and organized by the Associação de russos livres (“Association of Free Russians”), a coalition of Russian expats living in Portugal. Navalny’s close associate Leonid Volkov noted the importance of Lisbon’s role in the global effort to commemorate Navalny:
“Part of my work involves engaging with communities like this one around the world. There are about 200 cities with active communities. Well, two hundred is one thing, but for something to be set in stone — Lisbon is the first.”
Pavel Elizarov, a Russian opposition activist based in Portugal, told The Insider that the unveiling of the memorial was a “positive sign”:
“I think this is a positive sign of support for Russian citizens in Portugal, especially for the new wave, most of whom are hostile to Putin and his regime.
The memorial was installed at the site of a temporary one: it stood in the place where we traditionally hold rallies, as per the law, no closer than 100 meters from embassies or other government institutions.
In this case, the authorities are on the side of a specific initiative, which is great. Overall, I believe we need to build a more organized community, and then it will be possible to determine whether the authorities can speak on our behalf or not. At present, with the new migration restrictions and the withdrawal of the humanitarian visa bill, the situation seems to be getting worse.”
Portugal’s parliament recently rejected a bill that would have allowed migrants facing persecution in their home countries to obtain humanitarian visas through Portuguese embassies — and be granted political asylum upon arrival in Portugal. The bill, put forward by Elizarov and the Liberal Initiative party, was opposed by the right-wing populist Chega party, which argued the bill promoted illegal immigration.
Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s most prominent political opponent, died on Feb. 16 of this year at an Arctic penal colony while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he and nearly every neutral international body that commented on the matter denounced as politically motivated.
Prior to being arrested in January 2021, Navalny exposed official corruption and led major anti-Kremlin protests across Russia. After recovering from nerve agent poisoning in Germany — the consequence of an assassination attempt executed by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) — Navalny returned to Moscow, where he was promptly taken into custody by police officers at passport control at Sheremetyevo Airport.
A joint investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider and CNN, with contributions from Der Spiegel, published in December 2020, revealed the names and ranks of the FSB officers responsible for poisoning Alexei Navalny with the military-grade Novichok nerve agent.
The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service in the northern Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug reported Navalny’s death on February 16 of this year, claiming he fell ill after a walk. The politician's family and associates are certain that he was murdered. The Russian authorities, however, have refused to investigate Navalny’s death, claiming that he died as a result of “arrhythmia” — an irregular heartbeat.
In late September, The Insider released an investigation based on hundreds of official documents related to Navalny’s death indicating that the politician was poisoned while in prison. The documents showed that the Russian authorities consistently removed references to symptoms Navalny was noted by prison doctors to have been suffering — symptoms that did not fit with the Russian state’s official cause of death. As medical experts managed to confirm, these symptoms clearly indicate that Navalny was poisoned.
The day after Navalny's murder, Yulia Navalnaya released an address in which she vowed to continue her husband's cause. Over 400 people were detained in dozens of cities across Russia at events in Navalny’s memory, and hundreds risked arrest to lay flowers and pay their respects at his funeral in Moscow on Mar. 1, 2024.
Since Navalny’s death, makeshift memorials dedicated to the politician have appeared all across the globe, maintained by communities of exiled activists.
“Patriot,” Alexei Navalny’s posthumous memoir, was released in multiple languages in mid-October.