Present
Spontaneous memorial to AlexeY Navalny, who was murdered in a Russian prison.
Anastasia Kholodilova
I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, and moved to Belgium in 2007. After my husband and I moved to our apartment in Antwerp, the statue of Peter the Great on the Kloosterstraat became for me a place of nostalgia about my previous life. It was a connection with my hometown, and it made me a bit melancholic. Everything changed after the full-scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine on 24.02.2022. This monument became for me a symbol of this horrific cruelty, tyranny, and crimes of my motherland, which are made without any regrets or shame. My perception of this monument changed completely. I couldn’t look at it with the same eyes!
On the 16th of February 2024, it was announced about the sudden death of Alexey Navalny in a Russian prison. Another crime of the Russian state. The grief and anger that I felt those days brought me back to the statue of Peter the Great. But this time, I had flowers, candles, and pictures of Alexey with me. I was not alone those days. There were a lot of other people with the similar feelings. We came there because it was the only place with the obvious link with Russia in Antwerp.
The sporadic memorial for Alexey Navalny changed the monument’s character for me for the third time. There were always people, and there always will be people who risked and will be risking everything for the better world. These people can not be silent and do nothing while there is greed and corruption around them. They are doing their best to fight for the rights and freedom of people. One of these people was Alexey Navalny. He paid the highest price for this struggle-his life! In the huge figure of Peter the Great, I see the figure of Vladimir Putin now with all of his huge complex, with all of his endless struggle for more power. But his figure, today, is miniscule for me in comparison with the image of Alexey, whose pictures are laid next to the grave, candles at the feet of the monument. I would love all the people passing by to be able to see this dispropotion as well.
People like Alexey Navalny, Boris Nemtsov, Anna Politkovskaya, Vladimir Kara-Murza and Maria Kolesnikova and Sergey Tichanovskiy from Belarus and many other brave people did much more then Peter The Great or Vladimir Putin ever have done. And we have to remember them! I believe that it is very important to preserve the memory of Alexey next to this monument. His name could become the symbol of a future peaceful Russia that respects the borders of the other sovereign states of the world. And this Russia would guarantee and respect the freedom of people instead of killing and persecuting them.
I was born and raised in Russia, and in 2015 I moved to Belgium. Prior to that, I had little interest in politics and considered it not my concern. I believed that smarter people were in government, who knew how to govern the country and its resources.
However, as I began to compare life in Russia with that in Belgium, I started to see
the problems in my homeland. I began to search for information and came across Alexey Navalny’s channel.
At first, I was skeptical of his information. But gradually, as I analyzed the facts and reality, I realized that he was telling the truth about the astronomical corruption in Russia and how it leads to impoverishment of the people and increased social injustice.
Alexey opened my eyes, as he did for many Russians. He gave me hope for real democracy in my country and showed me that my voice matters. He affirmed my belief that true power belongs to the voters. It is incredibly inspiring.
It’s very painful to realize that Alexey is no longer with us. He gave his life for European values: democracy, freedom, respect for human dignity, and the rule of law. He advocated for integration into the global democratic community, where the well-being of every citizen and their needs are at the forefront. His example inspires us and will live on in our hearts forever. That’s why it’s crucial to immortalize his memory in Antwerp,
a person who fought against the bloody regime for European values!
I moved to Antwerpen from September 2023 as master student at law faculty of University of Antwerpen and fell in love with this city. I finally began feel myself safe because I supported Navalny’s and other democratic and independent people’s activities for many years. In 2021 I was put in detention for protesting against Navalny’s illegal imprisonment when he returned Russia after poisoning in 2020 and curing in Germany.
War in Ukraine became a red line, and in 2022 I left Russia. That’s why news that Alexey “accidentally died” in Russian most north and most severe prison I took quite personally. This another Putin’s crime shows and reminds us that he is a threat to Russians, to Ukrainians, to Europeans, that Putin has no respect for law, for honour, for anyone, but only afraid of will of free people and their strength.
Navalny was such free and strong person, whom name Putin afraid to pronounce while Alexey was alive. That why it is so crucial that his name will be remembered, particularly, by creating a place with his name in Antwerpen. It is crucial that Navalny’ and many of Russians’ fight, Ukrainians’ fight against Putin’s dictatorship will be continued for democracy, for peaceful Europe, and Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other post-soviet nations as parts of such peaceful and prosperous Europe.