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I already quoted this great line in my final statement, but Luna Lovegood’s words from the Harry Potter books are so important for the world we live in that they bear repeating: “It is very important not to feel alone. If I were Voldemort, I would very much want you to feel alone.” I learned about the support campaign that has begun, and about the actions taking place in cities around the world, from my lawyers. I see this, of course, as a campaign for the release of all political prisoners in Russia and Belarus, in which my name is one of the symbols. The Voldemorts of our world—Putin, Lukashenko, Khamenei, and Maduro—want us, those who refuse to submit to their power, to feel alone, abandoned, miserable, and forgotten in the face of their machines of lies, corruption, and dehumanization. And this truly is enormously important—once you are in prison, you understand it with particular clarity—not to feel alone. To feel alone today is to be broken tomorrow. I send my greetings, gratitude, and embrace to everyone who makes it possible for me, and for people like me, to feel every second of prison life, no matter how hard it may be: I am not alone.

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