Woah! Wroe!

The Ann Wroe obituary of Matthew Perry that liberated Alexsei A. Navalny.

Ann Wroe, the obituary writer for The Economist

Alexsei A. Navalny, the preeminent Russian opposition leader to Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in prison last week.

On Monday, February 19, 2024, a New York Times article covering the death of Alexsei A. Navalny contained an astonishing statement:

(In a letter written from prison), Mr. Navalny described his newfound appreciation for the actor Matthew Perry, who died in October. Though he had never watched “Friends,” Mr. Navalny was moved by an obituary he read in The Economist.

From “Inside Aleksei Navalny’s Final Months,” by Anton Troinovsky, The Wall Street Journal

I was startled by that quote.

It immediately brought to my mind THREE questions:

1. How did Alexsei Navalny read The Economist in a Russian gulag (prison)?

2. What did the obituary of Matthew Perry in The Economist say?

3. Who wrote the obit?

Death and Life