Navalny’s legacy
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2024
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Summary
The death of Vladimir Putin's largest opponent, Alexei Navalny, has rocked hopes of democracy in Russia. We speak with The Post's David M. Herszenhorn, who covered Navalny in Russia, about the impact of his death and Putin's tightening grip on power.
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Alexei Navalny had been a charismatic and outspoken critic of the Kremlin for more than a decade, and was the target of an assassination attempt. Last year, Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in prison on charges of “extremism,” but was seen alive and seemingly healthy just a few days before his death. President Biden condemned Navalny’s death as “proof of Putin’s brutality.”
The Post’s David M. Herszenhorn has written extensively about Navalny’s career and activism. Herszenhorn joins Post Reports to talk about Navalny’s legacy, and what the Russian political landscape might look like without him.
Today’s show was produced by Elana Gordon with help from Peter Bresnan. It was mixed by Sean Carter. It was edited by Lucy Perkins.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So David, I'm curious, what was your first thought when you saw the news that Alexi Nubalny had died? |
| 0:10.0 | No, I guess was the first thought, but then, of course. |
| 0:16.2 | For so many of us who followed Navalny's career, |
| 0:19.2 | this was absolutely shocking, but not the least bit surprising. |
| 0:24.0 | David Hurzenhorn is the Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe editor at the post. |
| 0:29.0 | For over a decade, he has covered the career of Russian opposition leader Alexi Navallny. |
| 0:35.0 | And Nervoni himself had predicted that there was a very good chance that he would be killed |
| 0:39.4 | in prison. |
| 0:40.8 | He was asked many, many times, why are you still alive? |
| 0:45.0 | To the point where the question annoyed him. |
| 0:48.0 | And in fact, he talked about not wanting to dwell on the risks |
| 0:51.0 | because it could be paralyzing. |
| 0:54.0 | But at the same time, it was sort of absurd |
| 0:57.0 | that he didn't quite grasp just how real the threat to his life was. The announcement of Namani's death in a Siberian penal colony came on Friday. |
| 1:13.7 | In the days since, officials around the world |
| 1:16.0 | have been blaming his death on Russian President Vladimir Putin. |
| 1:20.0 | According to Nubalny's spokesman, |
| 1:21.7 | local investigators have refused to hand over the body to his family. |
| 1:26.0 | Nervallny's team believes that authorities are delaying the release of the body, quote, |
| 1:30.5 | to hide the traces of the murder. |
| 1:33.0 | Today, Navalny's mother, Ludmila Navalnya stood outside the prison where her son died and she asked Putin to return her |
| 1:46.6 | son's body to her. |
... |
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