'Putin has gone mad with power': dissident speaks out

Writing from a cell in a Russian jail known as the Bear, Ilya Yashin remained defiant. In neat, blue-ink lettering, the opposition politician was able to express himself candidly despite his incarceration.

- Andrew Roth

Removing Vladimir Putin from power, he wrote, was a prerequisite to “avoiding the risks of a new world war”.

“As long as Putin retains power, war ... will be permanent,” Yashin said in written answers to questions from the Guardian, delivered by his lawyers last week. “This man has gone mad from unlimited power and impunity, he [is] a slave to his maniacal ambitions.”

Yashin was sentenced last year to eight-and-a-half years in prison for a broadcast on his YouTube channel in which he accused the Russian army of a massacre of civilians in Bucha.

It may take regime change before Yashin, 39, tastes freedom again.

“Obviously, I will have a chance to get out of prison if the government changes in Russia,” he said.