Navalny

About the movie

Centers on events around the August 2020 assassination attempt on former Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny by poisoning, the domestic flight he on from Siberia to Moscow needing to make an emergency landing upon he falling ill aboard. He was ultimately transferred from a Russian hospital to Germany both for further fear for his life if left in Russia without protection, and that any evidence of the poisoning being destroyed by the state in the initial and continuing suspicions that the attempt was either backed or directed by the Kremlin under President Vladimir Putin which they/he have always denied, Putin who even refuses to utter Navalny's name when questioned about him or the attempt. After the fact, Navalny states his surprise in believing that he was safer from such state attempts to kill him the more recognition he gained i.e. being too recognizable a figure. Beyond his staff and his loyal family, he ends up being secretly surrounded by a small group of investigative journalists including Bulgarian Christo Grozev with Bellingcat and Russian Maria Pevchikh with the Anti-Corruption Foundation who knew that the state would not investigate the poisoning. What to do with their findings culminates with Navalny's highly publicized return to Moscow on January 17, 2021 and how to take advantage of that return to release their findings to have the greatest impact.—Huggo