The U2 dedicated a moment of their concert on Saturday at the Las Vegas Sphere to Alexei Navalny. Just before their cover of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” Bono took a moment to speak about Putin’s political opponent, who died suddenly in a Russian prison this Friday.
“Next week will mark two years since Putin invaded Ukraine. Next could be Poland, Lithuania, Eastern Germany – no one knows what that man is ready to do,” said the U2 frontman into the microphone. “For those peoples, the word ‘freedom’ is not just a word in a song. For those peoples, freedom is the most important of all words in the world, so important that Ukrainians are still fighting and dying for it. It was significant that Alexei Navalny chose to stand up for it.”
And furthermore: “It seems Putin has never uttered his name. So I thought tonight, the free people here who believe in freedom should say his name. Not just remember it, but pronounce it.” And so the audience and Bono began to chant the name Alexei Navalny.