Thank you, Mr. Fonseca.
We never had such a discussion. Even when Alexei was still in a coma, for all of us—I mean for me, for his wife, for his close friends and colleagues—it was never a subject of concern. We all knew that once he recovered he would go back. He would never consider a continuation of his political career in exile.
During his 10 years of an active political career he has faced very many repressions and risks. He was attacked with a chemical acid in 2017, narrowly not losing an eye. He had to undergo many surgeries after he had liquid thrown in his eye. He was harassed by the government in many ways. He spent one year under house arrest. He spent a total of eight or nine months in jail, in detention, having been arrested for 15 or 30 days after, and then before a trial was even announced.
He has built a large political movement. He had the feeling that now, staying abroad, staying in exile would nullify all of this. It would denote that all the risks that he had taken already were for nothing.
We all understand. It's very clear for us in Russia that you can't be an efficient political leader if you stay away. Many have tried this, and no one's succeeded.
I'm not a political leader. I'm a political manager. I am running the political organization's day-by-day operations of our bureaucracy, of our original offices. We decided jointly with Alexei two years ago, when the threat of my imprisonment became too large, that I had to leave the country, basically, in order to ensure the smooth operations of the organization. For him it was impossible to call people to turn out for a rally if he was not participating.
He is a politician. He is a citizen of Russia. He did nothing wrong. He did not violate any law. Why should he stay abroad? It's one very important thing that we never had a discussion on. It was all clear for us from the very beginning. He didn't have doubts. He didn't ask me, for instance, if he had to go or not.