A letter to Vladimir Putin: Release Alexei Navalny
ALEXEI NAVALNY, Russias main opposition leader, remains a thorn in the side of Vladimir Putin. When he flew back to Moscow from Germany in 2021, after surviving being poisoned by Russian agents, he never made it through passport control. He remains imprisoned and ill-treated. Today we and other publications are publishing a letter from more than 100 actors, writers, playwrights and other public figures, who call on Mr Putin to release Mr Navalny. As our podcast series Next Year in Moscow explains, for Mr Navalny prison is not the storys end, its where a new Russia begins. April 28th 2023 To President Putin, As we write and you are well aware, Alexei Navalny is being held in IK-6, one of the harshest penal colonies in your country. He has been consistently returned to solitary confinement, squeezed into a concrete cell the size of a dog kennel, with no ventilation. Visits from relatives and phone calls are forbidden, his attorney-client privileges have been canceled. Despite running a fever, he is required to stand all day. We add our voices to those of the 600 Russian doctors requesting urgent and immediate independent medical help. A further 100 Russian lawyers and 100 regional deputies are demanding that the torture of Navalny cease and again that medical assistance be provided. Navalny is serving prison sentences based on charges which would never have been upheld under any independent legal system. We support the call of the German government, the U.S. authorities, and the European Union demanding his immediate release. It is in your power. Michael Abramowitz (president of Freedom House) JJ Abrams (filmmaker, composer) Pamela Adlon (actress) Paige Alexander (CEO of the Carter Center) Svetlana Alexievitch (journalist, writer, Nobel Prize winner) Anne Applebaum (journalist, writer) Margaret Atwood (writer) Mikhail Baryshnikov (dancer, choreographer) Gina Bellman (actress) Francois Berleand (actor) Ingrid Betancourt (politician, activist, writer) Francois Bizot (anthropologist) William Boyd (writer) John Burnham Schwartz (writer, screenwriter) Ken Burns (filmmaker) Carole Cadwalladr (journalist, writer) Alastair Campbell (journalist, writer) Eric Cantona (actor, former professional footballer) Elizabeth Carling (actress, singer) Emmanuel Carrere (writer, filmmaker) Jung Chang (writer) Enzo Cilenti (actor) Christopher Clark (historian) JM Coetzee (writer, Nobel Prize winner) Costa-Gavras (filmmaker) Benedict Cumberbatch (actor) Alan Cumming (actor) Charles Cumming (writer) Emma Cunniffe (actress) Rachel Cusk (writer) Richard Dawkins (biologist, writer) David Duchovny (actor, writer, singer) Pasquale Esposito (actor, singer, filmmaker) Sir Richard Evans (historian) Sebastian Faulks (writer) Niall Ferguson (historian) Orlando Figes (historian) Kate Fleetwood (actress) Jonathan Franzen (writer) Michael Frayn (writer) Niel Gaiman (writer) Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (historian, editor, filmmaker) Jamie Glover (actor) Linda Goldstein Knowlton (filmmaker, producer) Vesna Goldsworthy (poet, writer) Philip Gourevitch (journalist, writer) Roy Greenslade (journalist, writer) Sienna Guillory (actress) Nedim Gursel (writer) Matt Haig (journalist, writer) David Hare (filmmaker, writer) Irina Higgins (neuroscientist) Stephen Hopkins (filmmaker) Sharon Horgan (actress, writer, filmmaker) Anthony Horowitz (writer) Rebecca Johnson (actress) Erling Kagge (writer, explorer) Bentley Kalu (actor) Daniel Kehlmann (writer) Etgar Keret (writer) Jemima Khan (UNICEF ambassador) David Lavin (entrepreneur) Jude Law (actor) Kathy Lette (writer) Marc Levy (writer) Dixie Linder (producer) Giorgio Marchesi (actor) Agnes Martin-Lugand (writer) Mariana Martins (entrepreneur) Natascha McElhone (actress) Ian McEwan (writer) Catherine Merridale (historian) Claire Messud (writer) Tim Minchin (comedian, writer, musician) Herta Muller (writer, Nobel Prize winner) Charlie Murphy (actress) Peter Nadas (writer) Azar Nafisi (writer, professor) Sylvia Nasar (journalist) Bill Nighy (actor) Amelie Nothomb (writer) Trevor Nunn (theatre director) Tracy Ann Oberman (actress, playwright) George Packer (journalist, writer) Orhan Pamuk (writer, Nobel Prize winner) Daniele Pecci (actor, film director) Maria Popova (writer, poet) Ellendea Proffer Teasley (writer, translator, editor) Philip Pullman (writer) Charlotte Randall (writer) Dame Vanessa Redgrave (actress, activist) David Remnick (journalist, writer, editor) Jean Reno (actor) Daniel Roher (Oscar-winning documentary maker) JK Rowling (writer) Arundathi Roy (writer) Salman Rushdie (writer) Alicia Sams (producer) Nitin Sawhney (composer, producer) Simon Schama (historian) Kristin Scott Thomas (actress) Simon Sebag-Montefiore (writer, historian) Zaab Sethna (businessman) Claudia Silver (actress, screenwriter) Peter Singer (writer, activist) Ali Smith (writer) Timothy Snyder (historian) Art Spiegelman (cartoonist, editor) Samantha Spiro (actress) Juliet Stevenson (actress) Tom Stoppard (playwright) Alexia Stresi (writer) Arch Tait (translator, editor) Paul Theroux (writer) Olga Tokarczuk (writer, Nobel Prize winner) Katherine Tozer (writer) Mark Umbers (actor) Alvaro Vargas Llosa (writer, political commentator) Mario Vargas Llosa (writer, Nobel Prize winner) Indira Varma (actress) Marina Warner (writer, historian) Dominic West (actor) Olivia Williams (actress) Rowan Williams (ex-Archbishop of Canterbury, poet, philosopher, peace negotiator) Simon Winchester (journalist, writer) Susannah Wise (actress) James Wood (writer) Lawrence Wright (journalist, writer) Thom Yorke (singer, composer, songwriter) Assad Zaman (actor) Elsa Zylberstein (actress).