The CNN film “Navalny” follows Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who was poisoned in August 2020 with a nerve agent during a flight to Moscow.
The film paints an intimate portrait of one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics and takes viewers inside the harrowing search for answers following his poisoning.
When and where to watch
“Navalny” airs on CNN on Saturday at 9 p.m. ET. You can also watch now on CNNgo and HBO Max.
Who is Navalny?
Navalny is a Russian opposition leader, Kremlin critic and activist. He has been a prominent organizer of street protests and has exposed corruption in the Russian government on social media.
Earlier this year, Navalny was sentenced to nine years in prison on fraud charges he said were politically motivated.
Where is Navalny now?
Navalny has been transferred into a solitary prison cell, according to tweets from himself and his staff, in what he described as a move designed to “shut me up.”
Even while behind bars, his Instagram and Twitter accounts keep up his attacks on Putin. “He passes hundreds of notes and we type them up,” according to Navalny’s chief investigator, Maria Pevchikh.
His defiance, according to his political team, has put him in a race against time with the Russian autocrat. The question, according to Pevchikh, is whether he can outlast Putin and the war in Ukraine – and on that, the verdict is still out. “So far, touch wood, they haven’t gone ahead with trying to kill him again,” she told CNN.
Worsening health
Navalny’s daughter, Dasha Navalnaya, who is currently studying at Stanford University in California, told CNN her father is being systematically singled out for harsh treatment.
Prison authorities are repeatedly cycling him in and out of solitary confinement, she said. “They put him in for a week, then take him out for one day,” to try to break him, she said. “People are not allowed to communicate with him, and this kind of isolation is really purely psychological torture.”
His wife Yulia, who said she received a letter from Navalny on Wednesday, has also raised concerns about his health. She said he has been sick for over a week, and that he is not getting treatment and is forced off his sick bed during the day.
At least 531 Russian doctors as of Wednesday signed an open letter addressed to Putin to demand that Navalny should be provided with necessary medical assistance, according to the Facebook post where the letter was published.