Please Explain podcast: James Bond or domestic politics? Russia’s Navalny problem

Please Explain podcast: James Bond or domestic politics? Russia’s Navalny problem

02/09/2021

Russian anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny was jailed last week for nearly three years for breaching conditions of his parole.

His imprisonment is the latest chapter in a bizarre face-off between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Navalny. In recent months, the dissident has been poisoned on a flight to Siberia, hospitalised in Germany and arrested upon returning to Russia, leading to large-scale protests for his release.

Navalny, who the Kremlin has dismissed as an insignificant blogger despite his enormous international reach through sites such as Twitter and YouTube, has released thousands of documents exposing the inner workings of the Kremlin and even revealed the billion-dollar palace Putin apparently lives in while many Russian citizens remain impoverished.

During an impassioned speech in court last week, Navalny described Putin as “Vladimir the underwear poisoner”, planting the blame for his poisoning squarely at the Russian president’s feet.

Today on Please Explain Daily, Nathanael Cooper speaks with Europe correspondent Bevan Shields to unravel a bizarre story which sounds more like the plot of a James Bond film than regular domestic politics .

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