December 21, 2024 at 14:30 on Embassy of Russia (Rua Visconde de Santarém 71, Lisboa) there will be a 🙋 90th Weekly protest

🗿 Opening of a memorial in memory of Alexei Navalny

We thank everyone.

Firstly, I would like to congratulate Lisbon for being the European Capital of Innovation. 3 years ago, we came to Lisbon to start a startup. But due to the ambitions of a dictator, life ended up unfolding in such a way that social contribution had to be made before we could be successful.

After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many of us were in a state of shock, but we immediately wanted to act: protest, help Ukrainians, give up income from Russia to stop paying taxes to NOT sponsor the war, try to somehow influence our acquaintances who are in Russia.

After Alexei's murder, like many people, I felt depressed, apathetic and helpless. That's what happens when people lose hope.

The first letter expressing condolence for Alexei's death was sent by the Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, and Councilors Filipe Anacoreta Correia, Joana Castro e Almeida, Filipa Roseta, Diogo Moura, Ângelo Pereira and Sofia Athayde.

It was the first ray of hope.

After that, letters arrived from the President of the Municipal Assembly of Lisbon, Doctor Rosário Farmhouse, and deputies from the Municipal Assembly of Lisbon and the Municipal Groups of the MPT and CDS/PP. as well as Mr. President of the Municipal Assembly of Odivelas, Doctor Miguel Cabrita, and deputies from the benches of CDS/PP, PS, PPD/PSD, CH, and IL.

In the more than two years that we have been organizing our own protests, we have received support and helpful advice from many different people, and we are immensely grateful to all of you.

We also thank the Lisbon City Council, Department of Cultural Heritage Head of the Division of Safeguarding Cultural Heritage Maria Ana Silva Dias, Madam President of the Parish Council of Arroios Madalena Natividade, deputy to councilor Joana Oliveira Costa Mr. Júlio Sequeira, as well as an artist and businessman Francisco Soares Oliveira.

This is very valuable to us, because the Putin regime tries to make those who oppose it feel like they are in the minority.

Alexei was a symbol of hope and struggle. With this memorial, we want to give back to Russians the hope that it is possible to bring about the fall of the Putin regime and the beginning of positive change in Russia.

And to the embassy staff and Russian authorities, we want to say that your time has passed. Russia will have its own April 25th, its own bloodless revolution, which will free it from dictatorship and bring a change of power, peace for its neighbors and prosperity for its citizens.

And please continue to help Ukraine, where winter has arrived and Russian troops have destroyed most of the power plants.

For example, support the collection of portable power plants that Ukrainian hospitals and schools have asked Russian anti-war activists from Spain and other countries, including us.

Thank you everyone, thank you to our guests and thank you to Portugal!

And, above all, I would like to thank the members of our association, without you nothing would have been possible.

Ceremony begins.

Good morning. Excuse me, I don’t speak Portuguese, so I’ll have to speak Russian. Thank you very much. This is really important to me. I appreciate it. This is probably the first memorial that will be permanent in Alexey’s memory. Thank you to all the activists here in Lisbon for doing this. I understand that this is always a complicated approval process. It’s never easy. You did it, I’m very grateful to you, grateful for your organization, for your self-organization, it’s also very important that you support each other here together. Of course, I’m very, very grateful to you for remembering Alexey. This is very important to me, it’s very important for our family. Thank you very much.

Good morning, Madalena is president of the Arroios Parish Council. And I like it here in this tribute to Navalny. We are in a country state in democracy. And therefore, we will all want to embrace in these moments the people who fight for democracy, I fight for their ideals, thank you. Thanks.

It works with the Parish Council to support other events that require tribute. Thanks.

If you prefer, I can speak in English. So, hello everyone, thank you for being here. And it's been a honor to be here with my coleagues. History's not made by ones are afraid, history's made by those who are actually quite strong to give their lives for higher values, such as democracy, freedom and peace. And this is what we are celebrating here today. We are celebrating the strong words. But I would prefer to celebrate life, those who gave the life for higher values. Thanks to you. I'm really sorry, We all are really sorry for your loss, Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, Junta de Freguesia de Arroios, and all of us, all of those who came here today, all of those who belive in democracy, all of those who belive that Russia has another path. So, thank you so much. It is a honor to be here today. And maybe we all be able to read Navalny's best memories and to share them with everyone and keep on fighting for what we believe. Thank you so much.

Guys, hi. Thank you all very much that we were able to honor this memory together. Yulia, thank you for being here today, it is very valuable. Lenid, thank you too. In general, I really want to say something very briefly, and yesterday when I found out that we would gather here, I remembered Almodovar's film "Parallel Mothers". Many years later, he made sense of Franco's regime and what was happening in Spain. It seems to me that we will all have to think about it for many years, maybe decades. And I want to quote the main idea of ​​this film: "There is no such thing as quiet history. No matter how much it is burned, broken, or distorted, history will not remain silent. The memory of those who suffered from totalitarian regimes will never disappear. It lives in books, monuments, stories that we pass on from generation to generation. This memory warns: silence can be dangerous, and freedom and justice are fragile treasures worth fighting for every day. History teaches us to remember, so that evil does not happen again." Today we are opening this memorial at the Russian embassy in honor of Alexei Navalny. And this is more than just memory, it is respect and a call to action. This memorial symbolizes that defending truth and freedom is the duty of everyone who refuses to live in fear and submission. It is a sign that even far from home we remember and support the fight for freedom, human rights, despite the obstacles and fear that are trying to make us even more afraid, even more silent from there. But we will not give up. Don't give up. Thank you.

First of all, I would like to greet Yulia. You probably don’t remember, but once, you, Alexey and Zakhar and I were in Moscow at a pelmeni restaurant.

I remember.

Yes, and that’s probably where it all started, my activism started, because I met you personally, and completely by accident. I was in Moscow for only a week. And we sat together at this big table and, yes, ate pelmeni. Since then, I realized that Alexey really did have time to talk with people he basically didn’t know. Yes, and I realized that we probably just talked about some topics for about 40 minutes, I talked about Tatarstan, where I’m from, about my family. And I realized that there are very few people like that who can really sit somewhere eating pelmeni and talk. There are very few like that here, too, you won’t meet the president of the republic, you won’t sit with him. And that was in 2016 and then here in Portugal we also did everything we could to ensure that Navalny's name at least appeared on some page of some magazine. Unfortunately, now it's on the front pages. And I'm very glad that you decided to become a new face, and you found courage in yourself, and probably not the right word. Not courage, but you, you found courage in yourself, because this does not only apply to men and we really need in Russia that we use the word bravery, and not courage for this. Thank you very much. And thank you all very much, guys, you made a wonderful... You did a wonderful job, we now have a monument, right under the windows of the embassy. Super. Thank you very much.

Hello everyone. I remember that morning, when this was the morning. When we gathered here in February. And we cried and we hugged. And today I came here and saw Yulia, my heart almost jumped out of joy. Yes, I understand that there is still a lot of pain, but we do not give up. And I often write under posts: "we do not give up" and "I am with you". I want to thank Timofey and Nastya. These are the people who made this possible, who come here every Saturday. And there are very few of us, but they are always here, they are constantly doing that small but very important thing, gathering us here. I did not expect such a meeting today. My heart beats very strongly, my heart beats for freedom, it beats for everyone who is with us now. Let's not give up, hugs to everyone. And thank you very much for coming.

Hello everyone. I'm going to speak in English so everyone can understand, but I'm Portuguese. I come here as a volunteer almost every week. It's a pleasure to see this stone here. Don't give up. Good to see so many here. Thank you for coming and thank you.

On 17th of November in Berlin there will be a big march, which is initiated Yulia Navalnaya, Ilya Yashin, Vladimir Kara-Murza. And we are making the march on 17th of November here in Lisbon as well as the support of this march of solidarity. Anti-Putin, anti-war, and in help of political prisoners. And come here, on 17th of November at 11 o'clock. We gather at memorial of Alexei Navalny and walk through Lisbon till the praça dos Restauradores. Which is a symbol of revolution in Portugal when it returned back its identity, its king. There were only 40 doing this, so there is a hope that small group of people can do a big thing.

Good morning everybody. Good morning everybody. My name is João Paulo Batalha, I am a civil society activist in Portugal. I remember being on this spot in February this year with people with Russian citizens and Portuguese citizens, who love democracy. Lamenting, crying for the death of Alexei. And as Timofei said it was the time of so many people were losing their hope. We now know that Putin killed Alexei so he wouldn't have to release him in the prisoner exchange. So it was not just the crime agains Alexei, against the Russian opposition and Russian people, it was the crime against the very idea of freedom and democracy, which is why this is a cause that should be not ascold. And which is why I'm also very grateful and proud to see this memorial here in the spot where people gathered in the mourings. And I think what we've learned since is that this hope that we saw in Alexei we now see in each other. And I want to thank Mrs. Navalnaya for incorporating that hope and being that bit of a hope. And also for teaching us to not just see the hope in yourself but in each other because this is what we need in order to be fold. And as I was saying this is not just the caust for the Russian people, for the Ukrainian people are now being vaponised by Vladimir Putin, because it unites all levels of democracy. And this is the year when Portugal celebrates the 50th year of their democracy. So it is our goal to fight for all of our freedom, because we now understand that Putin's regime is a threat not just for the freedom of the Russian and Ukrainian people, but for the freedom of Europeans everywhere. And so this fight is our fight as well. Which is why we need to do our job as citizens in countries that were are in an in Portugal to make sure that sanctions are implemented and that we stand against this aggression. But mostly it's the fight to discover this hope in each other that we should not give up, we can not give up and we have to build our future together. And the future in democracy and peace. So, thank you very much for all that work to make this memorial happen, to have this reminder to not give up this fight and to understand as Timofei was saying that a small group of people can do great things. And we have to keep going and remember the example of Alexei and incorporate that example and make this fight our fight. Thank you very much.

I wanted to say a big thank you to the Portuguese community of anti-war Russians, those who participated in the rallies for Alexei's freedom after 2021 and in the Anti-war rallies after 2022. Thank you for doing all this, and thank you for doing it. In what sense: part of my job is to interact with such communities around the world. About 200 cities where quite active communities exist. Well, 200 - 200, but for something to appear in stone, Lisbon is the first. Therefore, firstly, they made the work much easier, because when the other 199 come, and when, you know, everyone has it, their hands drop, some kind of frustration, we are all guilty of this: sometimes we whine. And when all the other 199 come and whine a little, which, once again, is absolutely forgivable, and happens to everyone, I can now say: well, go and do it. Look, these guys did it. The second thing I am also very grateful for is this small memorial sign. It is a very practical embodiment of what is written on it. Don't give up, do it. As Alexey says at the end of the film: "the main thing is not to do nothing." You now know from your own experience that in order for something small and specific to appear, you need to go through 100 circles of hell: approval from the administration, approval among yourselves, collecting money. Surely, in some disputes about what will be written, how it will look, where to install it, you broke so many spears, argued 10 times, wrote hundreds of kilobytes in dozens of chats. Again, you collected money, talked with the municipality, somehow arranged relations with local officials. Now you know very well from personal experience how achieving even something small and specific, but specific, requires real political work. This is in miniature. I had the great honor and happiness to lead Alexey's election campaign for the Moscow mayoral elections, where tens of thousands of people participated. But in essence it was the same: it was necessary to coordinate the interests of a huge number of different people with different interests, to agree, to set up, to learn, to coordinate, to find compromises, to raise money, to buy something, to order something, to agree on something, to come up with something. Any joint work, no matter what scale, is essentially the same thing. And such work, it leads to a result and this is a huge experience that will be useful to all of us when we will eventually build this most beautiful Russia of the future from such small bricks, which will be our big common monument to Alexey, which we will build. The beautiful Russia of the future, which he dreamed of and for which he gave his life. And so, everyone who is not inactive now and is gaining practical experience of such work and such interaction - they are taking the first step and the first step on this path, because you can argue, get frustrated, worry a lot, and it is very easy to do this, but it is very difficult to do something specific. And you did it! Thank you very much. Well, and of course, thanks to everyone in Lisbon, in Portugal, who also helped, who participated in this, who supported from the local authorities. Obrigado.

Hi everyone. Thank you for organizing this brillian event. As an Iranian contatia hope that Iranians also we are figting for democracy and we are fighting against devil's regime in Iran. And also we could not also accept any dictatorship in all over the world. So we support Alexei Navalny and we hope with memorial of that be obvisory. So, I came here with this message. Thank you.

Thank you very much, I would like to my friend. He wears the flag. It's anti-dictatorial, anti-islamistic of Iran, which was before mollahs regime came to Iran. Thank you for doing this, I know this is dangerous.

Thank you all very much for coming today. Leonid is absolutely right: we spent a long time choosing what inscription to write on the memorial. But we did it for a long time because Alexey said a lot of very good words and Alexey did a lot of very cool, very important things. And it seems to me that the most important thing is that he showed very strongly the need for us to be together, because none of us would have succeeded in doing anything alone: ​​neither making this memorial, nor going to, I don’t know, rallies and everything else. Therefore, I think it is very important that we all did it together and that we are all together now, and it is difficult for me to speak today, but I also want to say one of my favorite words, that Russia will definitely be happy, because we do not give up, and we will build a beautiful Russia of the future. Thank you all.

Hello everyone. Hello, Julia. On behalf of democratic Belarusians I'm here. We work with Timofei on a lot of actions supporting Belarusian activists globe. And I want to thank Associação de russos livres for the amazing job here. I want to say something that I believe: Russia will be free, Belarus will be free, and there will be no war in Ukraine. Keep fighting.

We want to speak our favors to the people of Portugal, to the authorities of Portugal, because we have our free lives in Portugal, unlike life in Russia not a few years ago. And thank you Porgual, we appreciate it, thank you.