1 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:16,920 Speaker 1: From The Australian. I'm Claire Harvey. We're hoping you're having 2 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:20,239 Speaker 1: a great holiday break and today we're bringing you one 3 00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:25,439 Speaker 1: of our favorite episodes from the year. This episode originally 4 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:28,680 Speaker 1: aired on February twenty, shortly after the death of Russian 5 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:34,640 Speaker 1: dissident and YouTube superstar Alexei Navalni. The Front will return 6 00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:38,599 Speaker 1: with all new episodes on Monday, January thirteenth. Just hit 7 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:53,280 Speaker 1: follow or subscribe to make sure you don't miss an episode. 8 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:57,440 Speaker 1: The sun will set just after four thirty pm today 9 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:02,880 Speaker 1: on the treeless Arctic tundra of Siberia's Yamalo Nanette's region, 10 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:07,240 Speaker 1: and the temperature will plunge from minus eight degrees celsius 11 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:12,320 Speaker 1: to minus twelve. It'll be dark for sixteen hours before 12 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:16,760 Speaker 1: the sun limps over the horizon again. Today's forecast is 13 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:20,160 Speaker 1: for a howling wind to blast snow showers across the 14 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:25,200 Speaker 1: frozen plains. This is where the world's most famous political prisoner, 15 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:29,399 Speaker 1: Alexi Nevali, has died in a Russian prison camp called 16 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:34,319 Speaker 1: Ik three. Polar Wolf. Nav One was forty seven. His 17 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:37,119 Speaker 1: body was ravaged by the effects of a nerve agent 18 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:40,319 Speaker 1: poisoning from a few years ago. He'd been asking to 19 00:01:40,319 --> 00:01:44,280 Speaker 1: see a dentist for nearly two years. He had serious 20 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:47,240 Speaker 1: pain in his back and struggle to walk. He was 21 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:50,600 Speaker 1: serving a twenty eight year sentence on what were widely 22 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:54,080 Speaker 1: regarded in the West as trumped up charges of fraud 23 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:58,880 Speaker 1: and extremism. Just a day before his death, Neavale seemed 24 00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:02,160 Speaker 1: in good spirits at a court appearance via video link 25 00:02:02,520 --> 00:02:10,680 Speaker 1: from the Polar Wolf Camp. Prison camps, just like Polar Wolf, 26 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:13,560 Speaker 1: were the inspiration for two of the twentieth century's most 27 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:18,760 Speaker 1: evocative pieces of literature, books by Alexander Salzhanitsen, The Gulag 28 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:22,560 Speaker 1: Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. 29 00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:27,280 Speaker 2: He didn't want the morning to come, but the morning came, 30 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:28,560 Speaker 2: as it always does. 31 00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:35,320 Speaker 1: This is the nineteen seventies adaptation of Denisovich, written after 32 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:39,800 Speaker 1: Soljihonnitsen's own years in prison after being convicted for criticizing 33 00:02:39,880 --> 00:02:41,600 Speaker 1: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. 34 00:02:43,639 --> 00:02:45,920 Speaker 2: Rumor had it that it was the Chinese who had 35 00:02:45,919 --> 00:02:49,920 Speaker 2: given the authorities the idea of serving boiled grass instead 36 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:53,440 Speaker 2: of porridge. A bowl full of it weighed more than 37 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:56,200 Speaker 2: half a pound, but when you've eaten it, you are 38 00:02:56,240 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 2: still hungry. The good thing about it was the no 39 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:02,799 Speaker 2: taste hot or cold. 40 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:07,960 Speaker 3: Now, sad to say. Prison camps have a long history 41 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:11,600 Speaker 3: in Russian culture, but it developed really to an industrial 42 00:03:11,639 --> 00:03:13,520 Speaker 3: scale under communism. 43 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:16,800 Speaker 1: Greg Sheridan is The Australian's Foreign editor. 44 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:22,320 Speaker 3: And life in these camps is cruel, harsh and primitive. 45 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:25,160 Speaker 3: You don't get enough food, you don't get enough heating, 46 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:27,720 Speaker 3: especially the ones in the Arctic, and your life will 47 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:30,760 Speaker 3: be killed at any time by the guards. Now, Alexi 48 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:33,920 Speaker 3: Nevelni was unbelievably brave to go back there, and everyone 49 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:36,800 Speaker 3: predicted he would be killed in one of the camps, 50 00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:39,480 Speaker 3: and that is what has happened. 51 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:42,720 Speaker 1: Late on Friday night, Australian Time, the news broke that 52 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:47,680 Speaker 1: Navalni was dead. Anthony Albanezi immediately blamed Vladimir Putin, as 53 00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:51,240 Speaker 1: did other world leaders. Australia's ambassador to Moscow took the 54 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:55,120 Speaker 1: highly unusual step of laying flowers at a makeshift memorial, 55 00:03:55,680 --> 00:03:59,240 Speaker 1: even as police were dragging away ordinary Russians in their 56 00:03:59,360 --> 00:04:04,920 Speaker 1: hundreds who tried to pay similar tributes. Alexi Navanni was 57 00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:07,400 Speaker 1: born in nineteen seventy six to a Russian mother and 58 00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:11,720 Speaker 1: Ukrainian father. He became a lawyer and entered regional politics 59 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:15,360 Speaker 1: in the early two thousands as a Russian nationalist, but 60 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:17,880 Speaker 1: quickly the authorities began to see him as a threat. 61 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: A series of protests, arrests, and prison time began. This 62 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:26,560 Speaker 1: turned Navalne into a campaigner for democratic reforms and against 63 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:30,679 Speaker 1: what he said was rampant corruption from the Kremlin down, 64 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:34,719 Speaker 1: with a wildly popular series of social media videos in 65 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:39,640 Speaker 1: which he bluntly accused Russia's power elite of criminality. He 66 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:42,599 Speaker 1: attempted to run for president in twenty eighteen, and that's 67 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:45,960 Speaker 1: where he came directly into conflict with Vladimir Putin. 68 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:50,359 Speaker 3: Vladimir Putin these days presents himself as a sort of 69 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:54,159 Speaker 3: a Russian Orthodox Christian defender of the West, But he 70 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:58,600 Speaker 3: was a KGUV colonel, and he really has wedded all 71 00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:02,400 Speaker 3: the methods of communist repressi with over the top Russian 72 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:08,080 Speaker 3: nationalism and a patterner of completely fraudulent Russian Orthodox religious 73 00:05:08,279 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 3: declarations as well. 74 00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:15,000 Speaker 1: In twenty twenty, Navoe was poisoned with Novchok, a nerve agent, 75 00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:18,520 Speaker 1: an act he and his supporters directly attributed to Putin. 76 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:22,400 Speaker 1: Upon his return from treatment in a German hospital. Navale 77 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:25,960 Speaker 1: released a documentary with drone footage of a glittering golden 78 00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:30,080 Speaker 1: palace in southern Russia. Navioali said the president had used 79 00:05:30,120 --> 00:05:34,200 Speaker 1: money embezzled from ordinary Russians to build what he called 80 00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:39,440 Speaker 1: Putin's Palace. He's Navale in the video, speaking through a translator. 81 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:43,240 Speaker 4: I really want to understand how an ordinary Soviet officer 82 00:05:43,480 --> 00:05:46,400 Speaker 4: turned into a mudman who's obsessed with money and luxury 83 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:50,320 Speaker 4: and literally ready to destroy the country and kill for 84 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:51,680 Speaker 4: the sake of his chests of gold. 85 00:05:52,960 --> 00:05:57,279 Speaker 1: He's Alexi Navoali speaking to the US sixty minutes on CBS. 86 00:05:57,720 --> 00:05:59,760 Speaker 1: You know you used to be known as the man 87 00:05:59,839 --> 00:06:03,120 Speaker 1: or had no fear. But what about your family? 88 00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:07,159 Speaker 5: Do you ever think that you were putting them in danger? 89 00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:12,679 Speaker 5: That is the toughest part. Yes, I don't feel any fear. 90 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:17,840 Speaker 5: But children, what is kind of really horrible thought if 91 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:21,000 Speaker 5: they will try to use this navichok somewhere around my 92 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:24,680 Speaker 5: apartment where my children is coming, like you know, this 93 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:29,920 Speaker 5: door or something, but everyone can touch it. But anyway, 94 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:33,599 Speaker 5: we should fight these people because they will never stop. 95 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:37,080 Speaker 5: They will poison someone else, they will poison more people. 96 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:44,560 Speaker 1: In two thousand and six, former KGB agent and Russian 97 00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:48,600 Speaker 1: defector Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London, where he'd been 98 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:53,360 Speaker 1: informing on Russian organized crime. He died in a British hospital, 99 00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:55,080 Speaker 1: blaming Vladimir Putin. 100 00:06:57,160 --> 00:07:01,360 Speaker 6: Alexander Livinenko's death from a cute radiation sickness was slow 101 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:04,799 Speaker 6: and agonizing, but unlike most murder victims, he was able 102 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:08,560 Speaker 6: to give extensive interviews to British detectives before he died. 103 00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:14,080 Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, Russian double agent Sergei Scruppau and his 104 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:18,120 Speaker 1: daughter Julia were the targets of a botched assassination attempt, 105 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:23,920 Speaker 1: also in Britain. Navali's death feels different. 106 00:07:25,400 --> 00:07:28,480 Speaker 3: Now, Alexi Navelni. We ought to pay tribute to him. 107 00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:32,440 Speaker 3: He must be the bravest man on the planet. He 108 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:35,200 Speaker 3: was the leader of the Russian opposition and he very 109 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:37,960 Speaker 3: much echoes the old dissidents in the Soviet Union. The 110 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:40,320 Speaker 3: poisoning was meant to kill him. He was nearly dead, 111 00:07:40,840 --> 00:07:43,440 Speaker 3: but he recovered. But then when he was fit and 112 00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:48,360 Speaker 3: well again, he went back to Russia to lead the opposition. Now, 113 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:51,240 Speaker 3: the Russian government put him in jail straight away, but 114 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:54,920 Speaker 3: I think they're a bit embarrassed about killing him immediately. However, 115 00:07:55,280 --> 00:07:58,520 Speaker 3: his courage is quite magnificent, and whenever he's appeared at 116 00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:02,640 Speaker 3: court hearings and so on, he has retained his defiance 117 00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:08,080 Speaker 3: of Putin and the authoritarian Russian system. He's occasionally smuggled 118 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:11,600 Speaker 3: out through his lawyers or relatives' statements to the Russian people, 119 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:15,160 Speaker 3: urging them on to keep going in their resistance, and 120 00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:20,760 Speaker 3: most recently he smiled and gave positive gestures at his 121 00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:23,680 Speaker 3: latest court appearance, and then he was killed the next day. 122 00:08:26,320 --> 00:08:28,720 Speaker 1: The official story out of Russia was first that Navolni 123 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:31,640 Speaker 1: died of a blood clot and then the story changed 124 00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:36,080 Speaker 1: to sudden death syndrome. His heart just stopped. His mother 125 00:08:36,160 --> 00:08:38,320 Speaker 1: rushed to the camp, but was unable to find his 126 00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:41,319 Speaker 1: body in a local morgue. There are reports his body 127 00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:44,280 Speaker 1: was covered in bruises that couldn't have been sustained through 128 00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:50,320 Speaker 1: the hard manual labor Navalne endured at the camp. Next month, 129 00:08:50,400 --> 00:08:53,520 Speaker 1: Russians will vote in a presidential election that Putin will 130 00:08:53,559 --> 00:08:57,760 Speaker 1: almost certainly win, exactly the way he planned it. So 131 00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:01,720 Speaker 1: is Navalne's death a well timed message to any would 132 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:02,400 Speaker 1: be opponents. 133 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:07,360 Speaker 3: I mean, in a sense, nothing is a coincidence in Russia. 134 00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:10,240 Speaker 3: On the other hand, you can overinterpret these things. There's 135 00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:13,079 Speaker 3: a famous story of the State Department when the North 136 00:09:13,160 --> 00:09:17,280 Speaker 3: Korean dictator kimme El sung died and the CIA directors 137 00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:20,240 Speaker 3: question to the State Department boss was, now, why do 138 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:22,440 Speaker 3: you think he did that? It may have had more 139 00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:24,880 Speaker 3: to do with the timing of what's going on in Ukraine. 140 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:28,080 Speaker 3: But on the other hand, it's not an unreasonable speculation 141 00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:31,880 Speaker 3: that he's sending out a message before the presidential election. 142 00:09:32,360 --> 00:09:35,600 Speaker 3: He's saying to Russian citizens, don't you dare think that 143 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:38,280 Speaker 3: you can use the sham election that I'm about to 144 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:44,040 Speaker 3: hold as a pretext for engaging in any anti state protest. 145 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:48,640 Speaker 3: They want the power that they wield to cause people 146 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:52,160 Speaker 3: to be scared, above all their own citizens, but also 147 00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:55,080 Speaker 3: international actors. The final reflection I offer, Claire is that 148 00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:58,760 Speaker 3: the terrible tragedy of this is that Russia is really 149 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:03,200 Speaker 3: one of the world's greatest and most magnificent civilizations, and 150 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:06,679 Speaker 3: there is a deeply sophisticated culture, and the people who 151 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:12,320 Speaker 3: would be European and free who are being constrained by 152 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:16,880 Speaker 3: the savage authoritarian power of Vladimir Putin, who is really 153 00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:20,360 Speaker 3: a kind of a communist emperor, but he also has 154 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:24,760 Speaker 3: learnt the lessons of communist techniques of repression, and eventually 155 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:27,240 Speaker 3: he'll grow old and feeble and they'll be replaced. But 156 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:31,280 Speaker 3: there's no sign that the ruling system is under any 157 00:10:31,360 --> 00:10:33,959 Speaker 3: serious real challenge within Russia. 158 00:10:36,559 --> 00:10:39,080 Speaker 1: Coming up. If Vladimir Putin is wiping out his enemies 159 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:42,360 Speaker 1: one by one, does that mean he's feeling weak or 160 00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:46,880 Speaker 1: feeling invincible? While have you, We'd love you to join 161 00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:50,440 Speaker 1: our subscribers at the Australian dot com dot au, where 162 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:53,800 Speaker 1: we have the nation's best news, analysis and commentary. Twenty 163 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:56,760 Speaker 1: four to seven. We'll be back with Greg Sheridan after 164 00:10:56,800 --> 00:11:14,000 Speaker 1: this break. In August, one of Vladimir Putin's former lieutenants 165 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:17,760 Speaker 1: was killed in a plane crashed north of Moscow. Yevgeny 166 00:11:17,840 --> 00:11:22,440 Speaker 1: Progosian had launched a rebellion against Russia's military leadership exactly 167 00:11:22,559 --> 00:11:26,600 Speaker 1: two months earlier, and the leader of Russia's mercenary group 168 00:11:26,679 --> 00:11:30,760 Speaker 1: of Wagner has insisted it was not a coup but 169 00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:35,800 Speaker 1: rather a protest. Some analysts suggested Putin was weakening and 170 00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:49,080 Speaker 1: had Progosion killed to warn other potential rebels tois. There's 171 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:52,640 Speaker 1: similar commentary now after the death of Navali. Maybe this 172 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:54,720 Speaker 1: shows Vladimir Putin is feeling threatened. 173 00:11:56,120 --> 00:11:58,960 Speaker 3: I'm not really convinced by that analysis. I think he 174 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:02,719 Speaker 3: was embarrassed by the Progosion rebellion, and very early on 175 00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:05,320 Speaker 3: a lot of analysts, including me, said, well, look, either 176 00:12:05,360 --> 00:12:07,960 Speaker 3: Progosion or Putin must die out of this. There's just 177 00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:11,000 Speaker 3: no other logical outcome. You're not going to be allowed 178 00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:14,520 Speaker 3: to stage that kind of rebellion and stay alive unless 179 00:12:14,559 --> 00:12:17,720 Speaker 3: you win. Progosion would be killed. And indeed that's exactly 180 00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:21,760 Speaker 3: what happened. And sadly, if Putin does fall, he's more 181 00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:24,880 Speaker 3: likely to fall to a Progosion type figure than to 182 00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:29,440 Speaker 3: a Novalni type figure, because control of the armed forces 183 00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:34,120 Speaker 3: would be probably the decisive thing. But dictators, in a 184 00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:38,200 Speaker 3: sense are always brittle, even at their most powerful. So 185 00:12:38,679 --> 00:12:42,199 Speaker 3: a dictator doesn't serenely rule for twenty or thirty years. 186 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:46,520 Speaker 3: He is always sleepless. He is always sleeping with one 187 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:49,800 Speaker 3: eye open and a revolver under his pillow. So the 188 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:52,880 Speaker 3: fact that he thinks Navalni was a threat to him 189 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:56,320 Speaker 3: is a magnificent tribute to Nevalnie's moral courage and standing 190 00:12:56,400 --> 00:13:02,560 Speaker 3: and heroism. 191 00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:06,080 Speaker 1: You can read all the nation's best news, sport, politics 192 00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:09,559 Speaker 1: and business anytime at the Australian dot com dot a 193 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:09,760 Speaker 1: u