'If they kill me it changes nothing': Navalny in unreleased 2020 interview

Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died in prison last month, predicted in previously unpublished testimony in 2020 and released on Wednesday that his death would change "nothing" and other people would stand in his place.

"If they would kill me it changes nothing," Navalny told Jacques Maire, then a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in December, 2020, speaking in English.

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In the interview excerpts of which were released by French daily Liberation and broadcaster LCI, Navalny said his team knew what to do, although he admitted things would be more "difficult" without him.

"There are other people who are ready to stand (in) my place," he said. "There are millions of people who don't want to live in a country where the whole power is just in one (man's) hands," the Russian opposition politician added.

"It's not about me. It's about people who I represent or trying to represent."

Maire released the videotaped testimony with the agreement of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Navalny was interviewed by Maire on December 17, 2020 in Berlin, ahead of his return to Russia following treatment for Novichok poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin.

Upon returning to Russia in January, 2021 he was arrested at the airport and jailed. On February 16 Russian authorities said Navalny died suddenly in his Arctic prison. His supporters say the 47-year-old was murdered, possibly with the same Novichok nerve agent.

The European official served as rapporteur in the investigation of the Navalny poisoning.

"They know how to operate without me because actually I spent a lot of time every year in prison so they are accustomed to work without me," Navalny said of his team.

"But of course it would be more difficult. It would not be crucial, the organisation will sustain and will operate but of course it would be more difficult in terms of morale and motivation," Navalny said in comments provided to AFP by Liberation.

"There are other persons who can lead."

Navalny's wife Yulia has said she will continue her husband's cause.