Alexei Navalny: Putin’s Rival Reported Dead
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2024
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Putin’s main rival, opposition politician Alexei Navalny, is dead according to the Russian prison service. An outspoken critic of the Russian leader, Navalny, 47, was serving a 19-year sentence in a Siberian jail when his death was announced on Friday morning.
BBC correspondent Sarah Rainsford, who was herself expelled from Russia, explains what we know so far - and if the Kremlin could face any consequences. And Georgian-Russian writer Boris Akunin, a long-standing critic of Putin and personal friend of Navalny, gives his reaction to the news.
Today’s episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and Vitaly Shevchenko. It was made by Keiligh Baker. The producers were Arsenii Sokolov, Ivana Davidovic, Tim Walklate and Cordelia Hemming. The technical producer was Dafydd Evans. The series producer is Lucy Boast. The senior news editor is Jonathan Aspinwall. Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480
You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast’s Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:04.6 | Hello, it's 723 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:11.0 | And just before we started recording this episode of Ukraine cast. |
| 0:15.0 | Shocking news broke that President Putin's most high-profile critic Russian opposition |
| 0:21.0 | politician Alexei Navalny is dead. |
| 0:24.0 | He'd been serving a 19 year sentence in a Siberian jail |
| 0:28.0 | for extremism and fraud charges, |
| 0:32.0 | widely seen as politically motivated charges to try and shut him up. |
| 0:37.0 | And Alexei Navalny was last seen yesterday. He appeared via video link from his Arctic jail and he seemed his usual self joking, smiling, laughing, sharing |
| 0:51.9 | a joke with a judge and the judge smiled back at him. |
| 0:57.0 | There was absolutely nothing in his behavior or the way he spoke that |
| 1:06.5 | suggested that he will be dead the following day. He looked absolutely fine and we'll be talking about his |
| 1:17.2 | last court appearance and that what we know so far this is Ukraine cast. |
| 1:24.1 | Ukraine cast from BBC News. |
| 1:27.1 | Ukraine is an epicenter of unbearable heartache and pain. |
| 1:31.7 | Millions of people are without heating, without water. |
| 1:34.8 | Putin is the aggressor. |
| 1:36.8 | He will be ready to use nuclear weapons. |
| 1:40.6 | They killed him and fled. |
| 1:42.0 | I do not know how we managed to survive. |
| 1:45.0 | I want the people to know the truth. |
| 1:48.0 | Hello, this is Victoria Derbyshire in the radio car. |
... |
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