From WNYC Studios, I'm Brian Lehrer.

This is my daily politics podcast.

It's Friday, February 16th.

We'll begin today on the news this morning that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in prison,

and we've got none other than Masha Gessen from the New Yorker to talk about it with.

But first on MSNBC's Morning Joe, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul,

who served under President Obama and was a personal friend of Navalny had this blunt reaction to the news.

Putin killed Navalny. Let's be crystal clear about that. I don't care about any

negotiation, you know, investigation, his ill. The arrested had him in solitary confinement.

He has put him in a cell which was designed to. And today he is dead. Putin

killed Navalny. And why did he? Because Putin is weak. You don't kill people if you're strong.

Putin killed Navalny because Navalny was the one opposition leader in Russia that Putin feared the most.

So this is a really tragic day for me, and it should be a tragic day for anybody who cares about democracy.

Yeah, those little dropouts were on McFaul's line, not on your device, but Michael McFall on MSNBC.

We have probably the perfect guest to talk about the apparent murder. not on your device, but Michael McFall on MSNBC.

We have probably the perfect guest to talk about the apparent murder by Putin of Alexei Navalny and what it means.

The journalist Masha Gessen, dual citizen of the U.S. and Russia, wanted by Putin themselves

for their reporting on Ukraine, staff writer for the New Yorker and author of 11 books,

including surviving autocracy, and the future is history, how totalitarianism reclaimed Russia,

which won the National Book Award in 2017. Masha's family, by way of background, emigrated

from the old Soviet Union to the United States when Masha was 14. Masha was 14. Masha's family, by way of background, emigrated from the old Soviet Union to the United States when Masha was 14.

Masha went back to Russia in the 90s and worked as a journalist there until 2013, when it became too hard to be an independent-minded journalist there, then moved here again and has been living in New York since for this past decade.

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