I'm Brooke Gladstone with on the media's midweek podcast.

Russia's jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in prison according to the prison officials there in Russia.

The outspoken Putin critic had been serving a 19-year sentence for extremism and fraud charges,

widely considered to be politically motivated.

Make no mistake. Putin is responsible for Navalny's death.

Navalny had been living behind bars since shortly after landing in Moscow in January of 2021. He was returning home following in

he was returning home following months of recovery in Germany after he fell violently sick on a flight

between Siberia and Moscow.

Mr. Navalny is in a coma after a suspected poisoning.

He was flown to Germany after initially being treated at a Siberian hospital.

His supporters and his wife say he was intentionally poisoned.

Alexi Navalny survived, thin and gaunt, in a German hospital bed.

In the months following Navalny's poisoning,

Christo Grozep, former lead Russia investigator at Bellingcat,

was stuck in Vienna with filmmaker Daniel Rohr.

The two had just been booted from Ukraine where they had been trying to film an investigation.

So now Grosev had lots of time on his hands and a laptop and a fresh stack of data from

the Russian black market. So naturally...

Kristo walked into a meeting we were having one day and said very quietly

as if he was divulging a state secret that he thinks he has a lead

and who tried to poison Navalny.

Daniel Rohr directed the documentary Navalny, which portrays the story of the close collaboration

...