PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Egor Cherniuk was first hired by former Russian presidential candidate and Vladimir Putin opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2017 as the youngest member of his presidential campaign.
"I guess it was at the intersection of being qualified enough and crazy enough," Cherniuk told KYW Newsradio.
Cherniuk led the campaign office in the Russian province of Kaliningrad, which is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.
Local authorities initiated a criminal case against Cherniuk, and told him in May of 2018 that he must agree to psychiatric treatment or be barred from leaving Russia.
"They would essentially force me to sign a paper that I wouldn't be allowed to leave the country,” said Cherniuk. “That meant I was given 12 hours to leave Russia... to leave my home region of Kaliningrad."
Six years later, Navalny is set to be buried on March 1 after dying in a Russian prison on Feb. 16, and Cherniuk now lives in Philadelphia after fleeing Russia at the age of 19.
On the eve of his former boss’ funeral, Cherniuk expects it to be a big political demonstration attended by “tens of thousands” against Putin’s regime.
"I think it will be [one of] the most attended political rallies, if you will, since the beginning of the war,” Cherniuk told KYW Newsradio. "I don't know what Putin and the local authorities will do to stop that.”
He went on to say that Putin is holding Russians hostage over the country’s war in Ukraine.
"These are perfectly fine people who want to live peaceful lives,” said Cherniuk. “They don't want to fight their brothers and sisters."
He said he last spoke to Navalny in 2018 after leaving Russia, and that he felt hopeless when he heard the news of Navalny’s death.
"All the protests, all the arrests, even the war. It was all tragic and we didn't know where it was going but at the same time the fact that Navalny was alive and kept sending these messages even from jail… made us stay optimistic because he urged us to do so," said Cherniuk.