POST
PRODUCTION
SCRIPT
Foreign
Correspondent
2021
Poking
the Bear
29
mins 00 secs
©2021
ABC
Ultimo Centre
700
Harris Street Ultimo
NSW
2007 Australia
GPO
Box 9994
Sydney
NSW
2001 Australia
Phone:
61 419 231 533
Precis
|
It’s a story Hollywood couldn’t make up. An epic tale of power
and brinkmanship, corruption and courage. In this battle of the titans, two men fight about the future of
the world’s largest country, Russia. One is Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and avowed
democrat. The other is the ruthless strongman – President Vladimir Putin. In this battle of the titans, Navalny has been poisoned, almost
blinded, arrested and jailed. But this isn’t stopping him. Six months ago, Putin’s fiercest opponent lay on his death bed
in a German hospital, poisoned by a nerve agent, a substance made by the
Soviet military. Down but not out, Navalny recovered and on a crazy-brave
mission, returned to Russia to keep fighting. As Navalny was arrested and hauled off to prison, his team upped
the stakes, releasing a film documenting the existence of a one and a half
billion dollar palace which they say belongs to Putin. As people across Russia rise up to protest against Putin and his
excesses, Navalny’s inner circle are directing operations outside the
country. “The ultimate victory from us would be Russia without Vladimir
Putin…because we understand that absolutely the majority of our problems…they
come from him personally”, says Maria
Pevchikh, who heads up Navalny’s investigations unit. In this exclusive report, former Russia correspondent Eric Campbell speaks to Navalny’s
key advisors to find out what motivates their leader and what their next
steps will be. And we hear from the ordinary people of Moscow who are braving
freezing temperatures and police to voice their opposition. |
|
Fade
up from black. Episode teaser. |
Music |
00:00 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: It’s a fight to take down
the world’s biggest strongman. |
00:07 |
|
MARIA PEVCHIKH:
The ultimate victory for us would be Russia without Vladimir Putin. |
00:12 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: And it’s led by the man who claims Putin tried to
kill him. Alexei Navalny has flown back to a prison cell and branded
President Putin the world’s biggest thief. Can Navalny defeat Putin? Can he
even survive? |
00:17 |
|
LEONID VOLKOV:
He’s in custody of that very people who to poison and kill him just
less six months ago. |
00:34 |
|
ARKADY OSTROVSKY:
Here is a guy of extraordinary courage. It’s absolutely the archetypal
myth of a hero fighting a tyrant. |
00:41 |
Title:
|
Music |
00:50 |
Winter
Moscow. Protestors on street |
|
00:57 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: In the depth of winter,
Russia is stirring. |
01:07 |
|
CROWD:
Freedom! Freedom! |
01:10 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Since late January,
protests have broken out across the country, sparked by the arrest of Alexei Navalny,
who the Kremlin insists is a nobody. But thanks to this nobody, people are
calling their president a thief. |
01:15 |
|
CROWD:
Putin is a thief! Putin is a thief!... Freedom! Freedom! |
01:32 |
|
NATASHA ROMI:
Now the crowd is to Mattroskaya Tishina. |
01:46 |
Natasha
at protest |
That’s the prison where Alexei Navalny is now
being held, yeah. |
01:48 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Natasha Romi is a young Moscow lawyer who wouldn’t
normally risk arrest. But she’s come out today to protest what she sees as a lawless regime. |
01:53 |
|
NATASHA ROMI: We have a citizen who’s been
poisoned, almost killed and then returned to his homeland and imprisoned.
This is over all limits. |
02:07 |
Riot
police behind barricades |
|
02:17 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: The Kremlin has shut down
the centre to try to stop people gathering, moving in thousands of riot
police and troops. |
02:20 |
|
NATASHA ROMI: All the downtown metro stations are closed. They keep
closing them during the day, so we have to walk our way through, about two,
three kilometres, I guess, |
02:30 |
Natasha
at protest |
maybe five, I’m
not sure. So already downtown there’s a huge concentration of police forces
and they’re arresting people, they’re arresting protesters, but we’ll see how
it’s going to go, I hope it’s all going to go peacefully, we’re not there to
fight. Police force is moving toward downtown. |
02:38 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: They constantly check for messages on how to evade
roadblocks. NATASHA ROMI:
There are no coordinators of protest because the majority of
coordinators was arrested after last week’s protest. |
03:04 |
|
CROWD:
Down with the Tsar! Down with the Tsar! |
03:17 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: It’s as if the
all-powerful Kremlin is frightened of its own people. |
03:21 |
|
NATASHA ROMI: You can see how the power is
getting scared. I think it’s not about Navalny exactly, it’s more about the Putin regime that
has been present for the past 20 years, and it’s been enough. |
03:29 |
Navalny
on stage at rally. Campbell in crowd |
|
03:45 |
|
NAVALNY:
Hello Astrakhan! |
03:49 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Three years ago, I followed Alexei Navalny as he
was building the infrastructure to challenge Putin. The lawyer and politician
was setting up offices in 40 cities, staffed by passionate aides and
volunteers. |
03:54 |
|
NAVALNY:
Do you need a monarchy? CROWD: No! |
04:08 |
|
ARKADY OSTROVSKY:
He’s a completely new type of politician
in Russia. We’ve never seen anything like this. |
04:12 |
|
NAVALNY: We have to
change the power. We have to change the President to fight corruption. I
promise to introduce a law to fight illegal enrichment, where an official
will have to explain where they got money for that luxurious life. |
04:19 |
|
ARKADY OSTROVSKY:
Everything about him says, look, I’m just the same as you. I’ve come from |
04:39 |
Arkady
100%. Super: |
the
same background. I’m not even a Muscovite. I’m not part of this elite, I’m
not part of this closed circle of insider deals. |
04:44 |
Navalny
on stage at rally |
NAVALNY: I refuse to listen to this
talk that we have to tighten our belts more. Do you want to tighten your
belt? CROWD: No! NAVALNY: I don’t. I'm going to the
elections to unite people. I am travelling from town to town and saying,
"Guys, stop putting up with it. How long are we going to wait?" |
04:51 |
|
ERIC
CAMPBELL, Reporter: At the time, he
wanted to run for President, but a trumped-up fraud charge and a suspended
prison sentence meant he was barred from office. |
05:16 |
Navalny
and Campbell |
Navalny told me it didn’t matter. "The government says you can’t become a
candidate until 2028. What can you do about that?" NAVALNY: The government would prefer I never
become a candidate at all, never campaign, never investigate corruption. I am not interested in what the government
thinks. I am going to these elections to change the government, to remove
them from power. |
05:25 |
Navalny
amongst crowd |
ERIC
CAMPBELL, Reporter: Navalny was
clearly working on a long-term plan. At the time, I wondered if he’d survive
long enough to complete it. |
05:51 |
News story
Navalny poisoning |
NEWSREADER:
We’re getting reports that opposition
politician Alexei Navalny is in a coma in a Siberian hospital with suspected
poisoning. |
06:02 |
|
ERIC
CAMPBELL, Reporter: Last August,
Navalny fell mortally ill while flying back from a tour of Siberia. Fearing
the worst, his wife Yulia pleaded to evacuate him to a hospital outside
Russia. |
06:11 |
|
YULIA: The situation is outrageous. They won't give Alexei to us. We think
it's obvious they’re hiding something from us. We demand they release Alexei
from this hospital, so we can transport him to the hospital we trust. |
06:27 |
Yulia
followed by reporters |
MARIA PEVCHIKH: We
straightaway assumed that this would be poisoning, because I mean, what else? |
06:44 |
Photo.
Maria with Navalny |
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: His close aide Maria
Pevchikh suspected they were waiting for the poison to pass through his
system. MARIA PEVCHIKH:
We just knew
for sure that if |
06:51 |
Maria
interview |
that is the poisoning that no one is going to
investigate it, we knew that Russian government, Russian State wouldn't
investigate it for sure. |
07:00 |
Photo.
Maria behind camera |
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Maria Pevchikh heads
Navalny’s corruption investigations. |
07:10 |
Hotel
room video, collecting evidence |
She and her team rushed to his hotel room to
search for evidence. MARIA PEVCHIKH:
We just asked to the hotel administration |
07:16 |
|
to let us in,
into his room, it hasn't been cleaned yet. And we just grabbed everything we
could grab from his room. We took trash essentially from his room, packaged
it, sealed. It tried to, you know, not touch it with our bare hands. |
07:24 |
Ambulance,
Germany |
ERIC
CAMPBELL, Reporter: After intense
international pressure, authorities finally allowed Navalny to be medivaced
to Germany. Maria took the samples for testing. |
07:40 |
Hotel
room video |
MARIA PEVCHIKH:
One of the bottles that I grabbed from his
bedside table was later tested at the Bundeswehr lab, that's an army lab in
Germany, and this is where they found a trace of Novichok, the chemical nerve
agent. |
07:52 |
Campbell
at computer, video interview with Maria |
ERIC CAMPBELL,
Reporter: Now, the significance of Novichok, that to you meant the Kremlin must
be responsible. |
08:09 |
|
MARIA PEVCHIKH:
Absolutely. Novichok is essentially just, it's
pretty much just Putin’s signature on this crime. It's very easy and very
obvious that no one apart from the state has access to this sort of
things. |
08:15 |
TV
clip. Putin on poisoning |
ERIC
CAMPBELL, Reporter: Putin denied any
involvement. |
08:32 |
|
VLADIMIR
PUTIN: If the government truly
wished to poison the person you are talking about, they would not have sent
him for treatment to Germany, right? |
08:35 |
Clip.
Navalny YouTube video |
Music
|
08:46 |
|
ERIC
CAMPBELL, Reporter: Navalny emerged from his coma determined to find the assassins and
expose them on his popular YouTube channel. |
08:50 |
|
NAVALNY: Hi. I’m Navalny. I know who wanted to
kill me. I know where they
live. I know where they work, their real names, their fake names. I have
their photos. |
08:57 |
|
ERIC
CAMPBELL, Reporter: Working with the
investigations group, Bellingcat, his team soon pointed the finger at the
Russian security service, the FSB. |
09:10 |
|
NAVALNY:
We studied passenger lists of
flights from Moscow to Novosibirsk on 13 and 14 August. |
09:20 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: They identified the FSB agents who had been
shadowing Navalny in Siberia. |
09:25 |
Navalny
trick phone call with FSB agent |
Navalny set out to trick them into confessing. |
09:31 |
|
NAVALNY: Hello, my name is
Maxim Sergeevich Ustinov. I’m an assistant of Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev. |
09:39 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Sitting alongside Maria
Pevchikh, he called FSB team members, posing as a senior official debriefing
the operation. |
09:44 |
|
NAVALNY: What went wrong? What caused the total
failure regarding Navalny in Tomsk? Please tell me your opinion, I’ll write
it down. |
09:54 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: To everyone’s amazement,
one of the agents fell for it, discussing how they had applied the poison and
removed the evidence. |
10:04 |
|
NAVALNY:
First of all, where are his clothes? What happened to them? AGENT: What clothes? NAVALNY: Well, where are Navalny’s clothes? |
10:12 |
|
AGENT Well … I last saw them in Omsk. We left
them there. We went there and worked on them.
We cleaned and applied some solutions so that no traces could be
found. |
10:22 |
|
MARIA PEVCHIKH: He's the guy who's doing clean-up. |
10:51 |
Maria
interview |
So he would go
to the place where Alexei went to afterwards and just clean up. |
10:55 |
Navalny
trick phone call with FSB agent |
ERIC
CAMPBELL, Reporter: The agent even
revealed where the poison had been placed. |
11:00 |
|
NAVALNY: Well, what clothing did you focus on?
What posed the most risk? AGENT: The underpants. NAVALNY: Underpants. |
11:05 |
|
AGENT: We focused on the inner seams – at least they
were the parts we treated. MARIA PEVCHIKH: To be honest, that was the most |
11:19 |
Maria
interview |
unbelievable day
in my career. |
11:26 |
Navalny
trick phone call with FSB agent |
AGENT: Sorry, I have a question. Is it okay we’re
using a regular phone? NAVALNY: We didn’t discuss anything special. MARIA PEVCHIKH: It's sad and funny and good at the same time. Well, I mean, it's
sad in terms of what level of, you know, |
11:29 |
Maria
interview |
security
services we really have in Russia and good in terms of fact, that, you know,
it helped us to solve the crime, which to be honest, I barely hoped we would
ever be able to solve. |
11:44 |
Berlin |
ERIC
CAMPBELL, Reporter: Navalny was now safe in Berlin. |
11:58 |
Photo.
Navalny in hospital/Navalny and Yulia |
He had survived the murder attempt and implicated
Putin’s agents. Then, astonishingly, he announced he was
going back to Russia. |
12:03 |
Navalny,
Instagram video post |
NAVALNY:
On January 17, I will return home on a Pobeda flight. Please welcome
me! |
12:14 |
Navalny
on plane |
Music |
12:22 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL,
Reporter: Now the question everyone is asking is why did he |
12:31 |
Campbell
at computer, video interview with Maria |
go back to
Russia? Why did he leave the safety of Germany? |
12:34 |
|
MARIA PEVCHIKH: You can't be a Russian politician and not live in Russia. He had absolutely no hesitations about
this. He made his decisions straightaway after – so while he was still at the
hospital in Germany, he said he will come back and he came back. |
12:37 |
Navalny
on plane |
MAN ON PLANE: Are you concerned you could be arrested on
arrival? |
12:53 |
|
NAVALNY: Me, arrested?
Impossible. I’m an innocent
man. ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: The Russian writer and
commentator |
12:57 |
Arkady on plane |
Arkady Ostrovsky was on the plane to witness a
moment of history. ARKADY
OSTROVSKY: It’s no ordinary flight.
It’s part of that transformation of reality into myth. Navalny’s strength is that he senses he’s riding a wave of history,
and that wave cannot turn back. |
13:04 |
Police
arrest protestors |
CROWD: Russia will be free! |
13:25 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: In Moscow, supporters had
gathered to greet him. The authorities had no intention of allowing a hero’s
welcome. |
13:32 |
Navalny
at airport |
At the last minute, the plane was diverted to a
different Moscow airport. |
13:49 |
Police
detain Navalny. Hugs Yulia |
Police detained him at immigration and took him
straight to a police station where they set up a courtroom. |
13:56 |
Navalny
in court |
NAVALNY: I see from the documents I’m going to be taken to Matrosskaya Tishina
Prison. Don’t fear anything but your own fear. Goodbye. |
14:08 |
|
ERIC
CAMPBELL, Reporter: Navalny was now
at the mercy of Putin. But instead of buckling, he raised the stakes even
higher. |
14:22 |
YouTube
video, Putin corruption |
Music
|
14:31 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Two days after he flew
in, his team released a YouTube video accusing Putin of gold medal
corruption. They had deliberately waited until Navalny was back in Russia. |
14:38 |
Navalny
to camera |
NAVALNY: We
don’t want the film’s main character to think that we fear him and that I
would tell his worst secret while abroad. |
14:54 |
Drone shots. Putin’s Palace |
Music
|
15:04 |
|
NAVALNY: We
present the most secret palace in Russia – Putin's Palace near Gelendzhik. |
15:10 |
|
ERIC
CAMPBELL, Reporter: Called Putin’s
Palace, the film exposed how a palace costing USD1.5 billion had been
secretly built on the Black Sea, allegedly for the president. |
15:17 |
|
NAVALNY:
A chateau, wineries, an oyster farm
and endless luxury. MARIA PEVCHIKH: We have investigated its history and how ownership changed, to
prove that this palace has been built for Vladimir Putin by his friends, by
the oligarchs, and the place is so expensive that it is |
15:30 |
Maria
interview |
probably the
biggest bribe ever given in the history of bribing. |
15:55 |
Putin
animation |
Music |
15:59 |
GFX/Animation Palace tour |
ERIC
CAMPBELL, Reporter: The plans
revealed a giant underground hockey stadium, a theatre and pole dancing room,
even thousand-dollar toilet brushes.
They say much of it paid for with State money intended for health
care. |
16:07 |
|
NAVALNY:
We enter the personal casino of Vladimir Putin. It’s banned in the
rest of the country but everything is allowed here. |
16:22 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: And all this while
ordinary Russians were struggling to make ends meet amidst coronavirus and a
stagnant economy. |
16:31 |
|
MARIA PEVCHIKH: The main message of our
investigation is that Putin is probably the richest person in the world. He
uses a network a very sophisticated network of his old friends to hide all of
this. |
16:39 |
Navalny
in video |
NAVALNY: Our
future is in our hands. Don’t be silent. Don’t obey the greedy villains. |
16:57 |
People
looking at phones |
Music |
17:03 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Within
weeks, the video had attracted 110 million views; watched by at least a
quarter of the Russian population. Putin denied any connection to the palace. |
17:08 |
Putin
denies palace ownership |
VLADIMIR PUTIN: Nothing
that is listed there as my property belongs to me or my close relatives, and
never did. |
17:19 |
Drone
shots. Palace with GFX overlay |
ARKADY OSTROVSKY:
What we know is this palace exists, right. It’s real. It’s been
filmed. It’s protected by the FSB, Russian security services and the border
guards. It’s a no fly zone. It’s linked financially to Putin’s cronies and
his friends. |
17:35 |
Arkady
interview |
If it looks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck
and looks like a duck it probably is the duck, right? |
17:55 |
GFX
Putin and cronies in picture frames |
Music |
17:59 |
Campbell
at computer, video interview with Maria |
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Now if what you’re saying is right, Putin
can never live in this palace now, can he, thanks to you, because it would
show it was his? |
18:04 |
|
MARIA PEVCHIKH: Yeah, he definitely cannot live there. And I think this is probably
why he is most upset with us. |
18:11 |
Riot
police with protestors |
Music
|
18:18 |
|
ERIC
CAMPBELL, Reporter: Protests erupted in hundreds of towns and
cities. The young lawyer
Natasha Romi felt she had no choice but to join them. |
18:25 |
Natasha,
protest |
NATASHA ROMI: It’s
about the Putin’s Palace that he built for himself in Gelendzhik. So lots of
people got really angry about the amount of money that had been spent. |
18:37 |
Protestor
arrests |
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Police
detained more than 11,000 demonstrators, then moved onto Navalny’s associates.
Lyubov Sobol from his investigations
team was grabbed in the street.
Scores of campaign staff were
arrested. Many more went into
hiding. |
18:46 |
Anastasia
playing piano |
Even Navalny’s personal doctor, Anastasia
Vasilyeva, found police storming in to search her apartment.
She defiantly played piano, insisting
she would not sign anything until she saw a lawyer. ANASTASIA
VASILYEVA: You can applaud if you wish. LEONID VOLKOV:
It more and more reminds of the |
19:05 |
Volkov
interview. Super: |
Stalin-era criminal cases because very many
people are put to trial simultaneously on quite ridiculous and made-up
charges. Vasilyeva was, I would say
pretty, much collateral damage. |
19:30 |
Drone
shots. Vilnius |
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Navalny’s command centre is now outside Russia in
the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. |
19:46 |
Volkov
on computer video call |
Russia has issued an arrest warrant for Navalny’s
key strategist, Leonid Volkov. But for now, he’s safe. LEONID VOLKOV:
It’s actually quite a |
19:56 |
Volkov
interview |
psychologically challenging thing that I’m
enjoying freedom in a nice European city while your |
20:08 |
Photo/Video.
Supporters in detention centre |
colleagues are there in detention centres or
under house arrest. It’s not so easy.
I mean I’ve been detained like nine times and spent over four months in
jails. |
20:17 |
Police
outside court. Navalny arrives at court |
ERIC
CAMPBELL, Reporter: On February 2nd,
Navalny was brought to court for sentencing. The charges related to the old
fraud conviction, which the State had used to stop him running for president.
Absurdly, the court found Navalny had breached parole by not reporting to
Russian police while recovering in Germany. He was sentenced to two years and
eight months in a penal colony. Defiant as ever, Navalny made a love heart
gesture to his wife before declaring his contempt for Putin, his speech
recorded on a mobile phone. |
20:29 |
Navalny
speech from court. Mobile phone footage |
NAVALNY:
There was (Tsar) Alexander the
Liberator and Yaroslav the Wise. Now we have Vladimir the Underpants
Poisoner. |
21:12 |
Russian
news footage |
Music |
21:24 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL,
Reporter: The Kremlin has unleashed a media campaign to discredit Navalny and
his team. |
21:26 |
|
NEWSREADER: The fact that he is ruining thousands of
lives doesn’t bother him. And for what? The lie that benefits the West, not
Russia. |
21:34 |
|
NEWS
COMMENTATOR: It’s important to remember
that the West is behind this project. We all remember well that he’s not just
taking American money, but he is also a Nazi! He is just a Nazi. |
21:47 |
Montage.
Navalny videos |
ERIC CAMPBELL,
Reporter: Navalny is a controversial figure. In the past, his declarations of
support for democracy and rule of law have been mixed with hardcore appeals
to nationalists. In this 2007 video he likened Chechen militants to
cockroaches and suggested they be killed. |
22:03 |
|
NAVALNY: In this case, I recommend a pistol. |
22:30 |
|
ARKADY OSTROVSKY: I was
shocked by that video, and we started off on a very bad note. I was, and
still am, very critical about that period.
|
22:37 |
Arkady
interview |
What earned my respect is actually how much he matured
and evolved, how much he changes, how much he is capable of change. |
22:45 |
Leonid
interview |
LEONID VOLKOV: I’m
pretty sure that Alexei Navalny would not do such a video, not in 2021, but
even not in 2013 for instance when he was running for Mayor of Moscow. Not
even probably in 2011 when we started to work together. |
22:53 |
St.
Basil's cathedral/Moscow GVs |
Music |
23:10 |
|
ERIC CAMPBELL,
Reporter: On February 5th, Leonid Volkov called a halt to further
street protests in the wake of mass arrests. The strategy now is to focus on
defeating Putin’s candidates in the September parliamentary elections. |
23:13 |
Leonid
interview |
LEONID
VOLKOV: We'll see the electoral
campaign going full steam in Russia just in a couple of months. |
23:30 |
Barricades
stacked in street |
The thing that we
are discussing already for a very long time, targeted sanctions against
Putin’s closest friends and allies – |
23:35 |
Leonid
interview |
against his
wallets, against actually Putin’s money. |
23:45 |
Natasha
at home with mother |
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: The pivot from winter street protests is
welcome news for Natasha Romi – sheltering
from a minus 15 degree night in the apartment she shares with her mother and
two cats. |
23:48 |
Natasha
interview at home |
NATASHA ROMI: I have this glimpse of hope that maybe in September elections, maybe
something will go different than the usual pattern. I have this belief, I have this hope.
Because you see, the main thing is that the amount of people today who are
against this regime is much higher than say five years ago. Now, this
majority of people who were pro-Putin, they are against, they’re turning, you
can hear the movement, you know. |
24:03 |
Natasha's
mother |
ERIC
CAMPBELL, Reporter: But when her
mother Mariam joins the discussion, it’s clear there’s a huge generational
split. She’s appalled Natasha joined the protests. |
24:33 |
Mother
interview |
MOTHER: I
can't stop her from leaving the house. She is an adult. If she was 7, I’d say
- stay home. You don’t change horses
midstream, I think Putin’s not forever, but for now… NATASHA:
For now we are stuck with him, yes. MOTHER: Yes, for now. I don’t not see any real
strong alternative to replace him. |
24:46 |
|
Maybe it’s just me. However, I am confident that
this individual (Navalny) is not an alternative. NATASHA:
So we have two very different opinions. MOTHER:
Natasha, I love you very much. NATASHA: I
love you too. Thank you. NATASHA
ROMI: Our parents and our older generation, |
25:07 |
Natasha
interview |
yeah they’re right that we don’t know how bad it
can be. But they don’t know how good it can be. |
25:26 |
Navalny,
Putin Palace video |
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Navalny´s deeply personal attacks on Putin have
left no room for retreat. His team is
locked into a fight to the end, a fight that could last for years. Leonid
Volkov believes the best way to keep Navalny alive is to keep his struggle in
the public eye. LEONID VOLKOV: When,
as Kremlin hopes, the dust settles a little bit, it's so easy to stage
something when a person's in prison. |
25:34 |
Leonid
interview |
Like, okay, it
was a conflict with a cellmate, or something like this. This is something
that could unfortunately happen. So our task is not to let dust settle, not
to let Navalny disappear from the radars of public opinion and awareness. |
26:05 |
London.
Winter GVs |
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: From her base in London, Maria Pevchikh
will continue producing investigative videos of Kremlin corruption. MARIA
PEVCHIKH: We are, of course,
affected by the fact that Alexei has been put to prison. It's not nice. |
26:27 |
Maria
interview |
It's not good. We prefer to work when he's around, but it's not going
to stop us from doing what we're doing and it's not going to make our work
less noticeable or less effective. |
26:44 |
|
Music |
26:55 |
Candle
and light protest |
ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Before stopping the protests, Volkov
engineered one last demonstration – people shining lights on Valentine’s Day
to show love is stronger than fear. |
27:06 |
|
CROWD:
Free political prisoners! NATASHA
ROMI: I feel so inspired, and it's so empowering
to see all those people and I think it was a great idea to let people face
their neighbours. |
27:22 |
|
You can see
people from the same house, from the same building with you, who are sharing
the same views. Honestly I'm speechless, I almost cried. It's very, very
important to see those people close to you, |
27:38 |
|
with those
lights, you know, it's like Harry Potter magic. |
27:55 |
|
Music |
27:57 |
Snowy
Moscow GVs |
ERIC CAMPBELL,
Reporter: The streets of Moscow are now quiet. But the seeds of
defiance have been sown as followers of the last true opposition leader
prepare for the Russian spring. |
28:04 |
|
Music |
28:17 |
Credits
[see below] |
|
28:35 |
Back
announce |
ERIC CAMPBELL,
Reporter: Next week, we look at Russia's neighbour Belarus, where people are
also fighting to oust a dictator. |
28:46 |
Out
point |
|
29:00 |
CREDITS:
Reporter
Eric Campbell
Producers
Anastasia Tenisheva
Lisa McGregor
Eva Hartog
Camera
Dmitry Demyanov
Aleksnder Elkan
Arnas Mazylis
Tom Hancock
Editors
Stuart Miller
Nikki Stevens
Assistant
Editor
Tom Carr
Archival
Research
Michelle Boukheris
Anastasia
Tenisheva
Post
Production Editor
Andrew McLean
Colourist
Simon Brazzalotto
Audio
Mixer
Evan Horton
Digital
Producer
Matt Henry
Executive
Producer
Matthew Carney
Abc.net.au/foreign
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2021 Australian Broadcasting Corporation