Navalny returns to the social spotlight after the Oscar for the documentary about his life

Anti-corruption lawyer and The main political opponent of the Kremlin, Alexei Navalny, in prison, forgotten and subjected to unbearable pressures bordering on torture, she recovered bad reputation thanks to the Oscar-winning documentary about his lifeabout his family, his political activity, his imprisonment and, above all, about the poisoning with the military-use substance Novichok that he suffered in August 2020, while on campaign in Siberia.

Produced by HBO Max and CNN Films, premiering January 25, 2022 at the Sundance Film Festival. It has already won the award for best documentary at the British Bafta. Directed by Canadian Daniel Roher, when receiving the statuette he pointed out that “there is someone who could not be with us tonight, the leader of the Russian opposition Alexéi Navalni remains in solitary confinement what you call, I want to make sure I’m quoting your words correctly, ‘Vladimir Putin’s unjust war of aggression against Ukraine’, rnow declared by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for “war crimes”.

For the umpteenth time, Navalni, 46, was imprisoned in penal cell, total isolationhim, staying in a very small space between one and two weeks. As he condemned, visits by family members and private contacts with his lawyers are limited, medical assistance was denied and I can’t get winter shoes. And all because he continues to criticize Putin and predicts that he will lose the war with Ukraine. Some 500 Russian doctors have signed a petition asking them to give up Navalnysick and very thin, “abuse” and this allows him to be cured.

The leader of the opposition was sentenced in March of last year for “fraud and disrespect” to nine years in prison. and paying 1.2 million rubles (about 20,000 euros at the time) for crimes for which he is considered innocent and in a process he described as “rigged”. He is serving his sentence in the strict regime prison in Melehovo, about 250 kilometers from Moscow, in the Vladimir region. The Council of Europe again requested his “immediate” release at the beginning of the month.

Navalny thanked Oscar on Twitter on Wednesday. “I dedicate my entire contribution to this film to the honest and brave people around the world who day by day find the strength to face the monster of dictatorship and its constant companion, war,” he declared. “Politicized” award His wife Julia Navalni emphasized after the announcement of the award that her husband “is in prison only because he speaks the truth, because he defends democracy.” But for the Kremlin, the award is “politicized”. “Although I haven’t seen the documentary, I assume there is an element of politicization of things,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after learning of the award. In his opinion, “Hollywood is sometimes not ashamed to politicize its works”.

“Alexei, the world has not forgotten your vital message to all of us: We cannot, we must not be afraid to oppose dictators and authoritarianism wherever they raise their heads.”

“Navalny” wins the Oscar for the best feature documentary film.#Oscarshttps://t.co/OizA2V1EIT pic.twitter.com/XKW3M1wJjR

— ABC News (@ABC) March 13, 2023

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe is in the phase of studying the eight cases opened against Navalni, which it considers a “clear pattern of persecution”, recalling that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in his favor with regard to prison sentences “motivated by political reasons”, since their activity, far from being a crime, “does not differ from ordinary commercial activities”. Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe in March 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine, but remains bound by earlier ECtHR rulings. However, nothing prevents the Russian judiciary from continuing to attack him. In October, the Investigative Committee of Russia (SK in the Russian acronym) initiated a new criminal case. His lawyer, Vadim Kóbzev, assured at the time that “Navalni is now charged with various crimes, including inciting extremism and terrorism, spreading terrorism-related propaganda, financing extremist activities and advocating Nazism.” All this behind bars.