Speech on Exile by patron Julija Nawalnaja

Dear ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

Thank you for gathering today in this wonderful hall of the Elbphilharmonie. Thank you for focusing your attention on the theme of exile.

It is an important topic. For millions of people around the world, including here in Europe. And for my country, Russia. And, of course, for me personally.

Three years ago, Vladimir Putin unleashed a senseless and bloody war against Ukraine. A war that brought colossal suffering to its civilians, forcing millions of Ukrainians to leave their homes and become refugees. Through Putin’s fault, these people were torn away from their homeland, their land, their loved ones.

A year earlier, another dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, brutally suppressed protests against his own election theft in Belarus. Thousands were thrown into prison. More than five hundred thousand went into exile, adding to the sad statistics.

The same fate eventually befell Russians who refused to become part of Putin’s criminal regime. Russians who opposed the war in Ukraine and the dictator’s rule. Russians who did not want to take up arms. In three years, about one and a half million people have left Russia because of the war, repression and forced mobilisation. First of all – young, intelligent, talented.

After all, who packed up and left in the first place?

Political activists who were threatened with reprisals for their anti-war stance. That is, people who are active, not indifferent, with a keen sense of justice. Young professionals who are confident in their ability to find a job and build a new life outside the country. Entrepreneurs whose businesses are being taken away by corrupt law enforcers who fabricate criminal cases.

I mean, what is a million and a half people who have left the vast country of Russia? One per cent of the population. But when these are the best people of the country, it is a terrible blow to its future.

It seems such an obvious thing: if people flee the country, it is bad for it. It seems that at the level of common sense everyone is interested in having fewer refugees.

But alas. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, ten years ago there were 14 million people in the world who were forced to leave their home country because of persecution. And in 2024, there are almost three times as many. 38 million. That is the population of Poland, a large European country.

Behind the statistical figures are real lives. 38 million people whose lives were so shattered, in such danger, that they left everything behind and travelled into the unknown.

Almost one in ten of them – 3.5 million people – found temporary refuge in Germany. That is like the population of Berlin.

I am grateful to Germany and many other Western countries that many of their citizens and political leaders understand and accept refugees. They give them protection, shelter, financial support. They fulfil their humanitarian obligations.

But can this continue? And should it? What would happen if the number of refugees in the world triples again in the next ten years? What would our world be like then?

We still have to be realistic and realise, do we not? The capacity to take exiled people is not unlimited. It just can’t go on like this.

And more importantly, where does it go from here?

If you read the news, it seems like every month a new conflict breaks out somewhere in the world. And ordinary people have to pack up their little belongings and go into exile, saving the last things they own. Their lives and their freedom, the freedom and the lives of their children.

They go in search of a place where they can be accepted – in democratic countries, faithful to the principles of international humanitarian law.

But let us be honest: democracies are not doing very well at the moment. For example, according to the Economist’s Democracy Index, eight per cent of the world’s population live in full-fledged democracies. Everyone else is much less fortunate. 55 per cent live in authoritarian dictatorships and hybrid regimes – that is seven times as many as live in democracies.

You don’t have to be a mathematician to realise that there is not enough room in democracies for all the people from dictatorships. You don’t have to be a mathematician to understand that we need to fight the cause, not the effect. The fact that too many regimes around the world are oppressing citizens and creating refugees.

And as long as we treat the symptoms of the disease while ignoring the causes, we cannot solve the problem. Moreover, we can only make it worse.

This is exactly what is happening in many European democracies today. We see populists flourishing everywhere, offering simple solutions to the planet’s global problems – solutions that are as simple as they are wrong. They say that if you put a high fence around any problem, there will be no problem.

Of course, it doesn’t work that way. When a parent saves her child from starvation, from violence, from death, no fence will be a barrier for her. The only way to actually make there be fewer exiles is to reduce the number of dictatorships and dictators. People flee from dictators – from what they do to their own countries and their neighbours. One does not go into exile from democracies.

Of course, fighting dictators is very difficult. You could get killed for it. Dictators in the 21^st century have become more cunning and dangerous. They learn from each other, they learn from the mistakes of the past. They have learnt how to use modern technology. They possess the most powerful propaganda tools; they are rich and cruel. It is dangerous to fight them. But there is simply no other way out.

If there were more politically stable regimes in the world, based on democracy and the rule of law, high fences would not be needed. If there are more and more dictatorships, the number of people in exile will continue to grow – and no fences will help.

Therefore, feeling gratitude to all the countries that have welcomed exiles from my homeland and other countries, I am not going to give up the fight against Vladimir Putin’s regime. I know that many of you support me and my colleagues in this struggle, and I am grateful for this support.

On 16 February 2024, my husband, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was murdered in prison by Vladimir Putin.

Exactly one year ago on this day, 19 February, 3 days after Alexei’s murder, I released a video in which I declared that I would continue his cause, his struggle.

I felt very bad. I was scared. But could I allow Putin to win? That my husband’s sacrifice would be in vain?

The only way to make sure that his sacrifice is not in vain is to build the beautiful Russia of the future that he dreamed and talked about. The one he believed in, the one he sacrificed his life for. The kind of Russia to which all those who were forced to leave in recent years will want to return.

I myself do not live in my native country. ‘Home’ for me remains in Russia, and I don’t stay anywhere outside of it for long. I spend most of my time travelling – in planes and hotels. I did not attend my husband’s funeral and I cannot go to his grave – in Russia I would be arrested immediately. And every day I dream most of all about coming home.

I know that this is the dream of most of those living in exile.

Love for one’s native country is not contradictory to the desire to settle, even temporarily, in a foreign country. There is no contradiction between patriotism – and gratitude to the country that received refugees. Between organising life in exile, with its small joys and successes, and preserving one’s own culture. Between learning a new language – and working every day to change things in our homeland so that we can return there. Both are important.

Every exiled person has his or her own priorities. Their own difficult and painful path. A different story. But there is something that unites us: a common pain, a longing for the homeland and a hope to return. We must remember this and support each other.

We will definitely return home. And we will do everything we can to make sure that day comes as soon as possible.

So let me put it this way: I will do my best to make sure that the ‘Days of Exile’ organised by the Körber-Stiftung no longer need to be held. That they simply won’t be necessary.

Thank you for what you do and for not giving up.