for “the most popular film of the festival” and the audience award

Recall that on January 26, at the American independent film festival Sundance 2022, which is currently taking place in Salt Lake City, the HBO and CNN Films documentary “Navalny” was shown for the first time, telling about the poisoning of the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Alexei Navalny.

The picture will also be shown to the Russian audience, informed Bellingcat journalist Hristo Grozev. At the same time, he did not specify on which platform Russian viewers will be able to see him legally.

“CNN and HBO promise that the film will be released on streaming very soon, within a month. And today I heard about the plans of how this film can be completely legally brought to the Russian audience. I am very afraid that if we give out preliminary information, this may give ideas to interfere with someone [показу]. I can only say that these plans are convincing, I believe that in the near future the Russian audience will be able to officially watch this film,” Grozev said. He noted that, “fortunately”, not all platforms are under the control of the Russian authorities.

At the same time, Navalny’s associate Maria Pevchikh called the forecast that the film will be available on streaming within a month “very optimistic”. According to her, the premiere will take place a little later.

“There is no one in the world who deserves to see a film about Navalny more than the Russian audience. I myself will do everything possible to make this film freely available, in Russian or with subtitles or dubbing. But so that he would also be available to the Russian audience, ”Pevchikh quotes Dozhd.

Most of the film consistently tells the story of Navalny’s poisoning, which occurred in the summer of 2020, and covers the period up to the detention of the politician at a Moscow airport in January 2021.

“In Navalny, director Roer shows a bold and controversial potential president who is ready to sacrifice everything to bring about reforms in his homeland,” the film’s description reads.

How the shooting went told and Alexei Navalny himself, his comment was posted on Instagram.

“I was going to spend this day beautiful and smart – in a tuxedo and with a glass of champagne at the premiere, but I will spend it as usual – in boots, a prison uniform and with a mug of tea. Well, nothing, it makes the story even more entertaining, and you will drink champagne for me too.

For several months from the moment I got out of the coma to the moment I was arrested, there was a phrase in my life that really started to piss me off. I heard it often, and it sounded like this: “Insane events are happening around you, well, like in a movie. You should definitely film everything and release a documentary about what is happening. Necessarily. Necessarily. Necessarily”.

And I really wanted to say: “Leave me alone, they are already filming a film, they are filming it.” But it is impossible – everything had to be kept in strict confidence. And in fact, even in the hospital, we decided: everything that happens – “Novichok”, poisoning, hospital, security – is too wild not to film it. And although I can’t stand the format “you do what you planned, mind your own business, and we’ll just walk around with a camera and shoot,” I decided that it was worth a try. Yulia “Navalnaya” sighed and also agreed. The children had nowhere to go.

Well, we started filming. At first it was Pevchikh literally just with an iPhone. Then we accidentally met a young director “Daniel Roer”, who originally made a film about Hristo Grozev, but ended up making a film about us. Everything was filmed just in case. How do I heal and recover? How, together with Christo, a thriller began with the investigation and discovery of a gang of poisoners from the FSB. How I called my killers.

Filmed as filmed “Putin’s Palace”. Well, and so on. The last time the film crew was with me at the moment when people in uniform told me at the border control: “Let’s go.”

Well, now there are two news. Bad and good. The bad news: the IK-2 prison library does not have a subscription to HBO Max, where this film will be shown. Good: the film is ready, and you will definitely watch it before me. The world premiere is about to take place, and after it you will go to the cinema, I hope you go to this film. In general, see for yourself and be sure to tell me what happened there. Terribly curious, you know.”

December 14, 2020 The Insider and Belingcat together with FBK published an investigation in which the names of the FSB officers who took part in the poisoning of Navalny with the Novichok substance, which the OPCW recognized as a military toxin, were named. Two days later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the investigation into the attempted assassination of Navalny with the names of current FSB officers “fun reading.” Later, Vladimir Putin de facto validated the results of the investigation by The Insider and Bellingcat when he did not deny that the FSB officers mentioned in the article were near Navalny on those very dates.

There were also published the confession of Konstantin Kudryavtsev, who spoke with Alexei Navalny (thinking that he was talking to Patrushev’s assistant) and told many details of the assassination attempt. Among other things, he explained that Navalny’s life was saved by the actions of the pilots and atropine administered by the ambulance, and also specified that the poison was applied to his underpants, and the traffic police helped the FSB officers to clean up the traces.

January 25, 2022 Alexei Navalny, as well as his associates Lyubov Sobol, Vyacheslav Gimadi, Georgy Alburov, Ruslan Shaveddinov, Lilia Chanysheva, Ksenia Fadeeva, Andrey Fateev, Vadim Ostanin, Yegor Butakov, Zakhar Sarapulov and former FBK cameraman Pavel Zelensky made to the list of terrorists and extremists. Their names appeared in the list of Rosfinmonitoring.