-Rolling. -We're rolling on him.
-Okay. We're going, guys? -Yeah.
Alexei, I want to talk about something that we sort of touched on this morning.
And you might hate this, but I really want you to think about it.
If you are killed, if this does happen,
what message do you leave behind to the Russian people?
Come on, Daniel. No. No way.
It's like you're making a movie for the case of my death.
Like, again, I'm ready to answer your question,
but please let it be another movie. Movie number two.
Like, let's make a thriller out of this movie,
and in the case I would be killed, let's make a boring movie of memory.
Hello, it's Navalny.
I am here in Germany now, but not by choice.
I was brought here because I was almost murdered.
They are offended because they tried to kill me and I survived.
So now they're threatening to throw me in jail.
Putin might as well hang a massive banner above the Kremlin,
"Alexei, please, do not under any circumstances come back home!"
And so I immediately went online
and purchased tickets for my return trip.
So on Sunday, January 17, 2021, I will be returning to Moscow
and I hope to see you there.
Alexei Navalny is stepping back into another showdown with the Kremlin.
What to do with Navalny presents a conundrum for the Kremlin.
Let him go and risk looking weak, or lock him up,
knowing it could turn him into a political martyr.
Hi.
Mr. Navalny? From Israel Television. Aren't you afraid?
Do you feel like a hero returning to the motherland?
I feel like a citizen of Russia who has every right to go back home.
Are you not scared, Alexei?
I feel great. It's the best moment in the last 5 months.
What do you expect in Moscow?
I expect very good weather in Moscow, negative 23.
And I expect a pleasant feeling of finally arriving to my home city.
What do you think about what the government's doing at the Moscow airport,
trying to prevent you from meeting your supporters?
Things look a bit strange.
As usual, our government can be characterized as afraid.
Now, I urge all of you to take a seat and fasten your seatbelts
or we will never get home.
NAVALNY
THREE YEARS yARLIER
-Navalny! Navalny! -Navalny! Navalny!
-Has Putin done anything good for you? -No!
I'm not afraid to say what I've said many times,
the people in power are corrupt thieves.
Who is Vladimir Putin?
-A thief! -Putin?
Thief!
-Putin? -Thief!
You said it, not me.
Now the police have filmed us all.
Unexpectedly, Vladimir Putin has a genuine challenger.
A handsome 41-year-old lawyer, Alexei Navalny,
who has chosen one of the most dangerous occupations in the world,
running against the man who controls the Kremlin.
More than any other opposition figure in Russia,
Alexei Navalny gets ordinary people out to protest.
If I want to fight Putin, if I want to be a leader of a country,
I have to do something practical about it.
I have to kind of organize people.
We have 182,000 volunteers.
More than any other candidate in all of Russian history.
In our country, people are dying before they reach 60-65 years of age.
European countries are horrified by our life expectancy.
Alexei, a question for you.
What do you think about the wars in Ukraine and Syria?
-Do you want to pay for war? -No!
I will end war.
I was banned from everything.
Television, banned. Newspapers, blacklisted.
Rallies, forbidden.
I realized, I can do a lot on my own
with the support of my wife, Yulia.
Just small group of people I can rely on.
Zero money, a lot of work.
Internet, and that's it.
Hi, this is Navalny!
Are you ready to join us catching crooks red-handed?
His youngest fans have turned to TikTok,
which has been crucial in spreading the word.
Navalny's posted hundreds of videos about his corruption investigations,
and they're wildly popular.
When an oligarch gives rides on his yacht to top government officials,
that's a bribe.
The Kremlin hates Navalny so much that they literally refuse to say his name.
In regards to the opposition and the citizen you mentioned...
In regards to that character you mentioned...
That person you mentioned...
he can be called whatever.
Why do they call me an extremist?
Because they don't like me going around saying
the war against corruption is not just against a corrupt system.
It's a war against specific corrupt people.
Our office was raided,
and they just confiscated everything.
Everything.
They splashed a toxic liquid to my face, and my first thought was, "Jesus.
I will be, kind of, monster until the end of my days."
Bro, don't resist or I'll break your arm.
Fuck! You're breaking it!
As I became more and more famous guy,
I was totally sure that my life became safer and safer
because I am a, kind of, famous guy.
And it would be problematic for them just to kill me.
-And, boy, were you wrong. -Yes. I was very wrong.
NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA TWO DAYS BEFORE POISONING
Wait, that guy is taking a leak, or whatever he's doing.
No, that's perfect.
We're rolling.
Welcome to the Russian ghetto.
So, we went to Siberia to make a nice movie
about local corruption.
I expected a lot of police.
I expected a lot of people who'd try to prevent our filming,
confiscate our cameras, or just break our cameras
or try to beat us.
I expected that sort of things, and I was very surprised, like...
"Why is nobody here? Why is there kind of..."
I even have this strange feeling, like a lack of respect.
"Seriously? I'm here, and where is my police?"
The whole trip was the smoothest trip I ever had in regions.
I am a kind of slave of Thursdays,
because on Thursday, I have my online YouTube show.
And then weekend, I can spend with my family
before another trip to another region.
I was going home...
and then...
I died.
Passengers on his flight from Siberia heard Alexei Navalny cry out in agony.
BREAKING NEWS PUTIN CRITIC POISONED?
RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE
Other passengers filming, just after the plane
makes an emergency landing in Siberia.
Navalny then rushed to the hospital, where he was put on a ventilator.
His spokeswoman saying Navalny was poisoned.
His wife raced to be by his side.
Is this an assassination attempt by the Kremlin?
You're not allowed in here.
You need a COVID mask.
What about your mask?
-I'm wearing a mask. -Well, not really.
I'm wearing a mask, you're not. Let's go.
They're not letting us see the doctors.
We're just trying to meet the doctors.
We're not getting access to the doctors.
Go sit quietly over there.
Stop pushing me! Have you lost your mind?
Don't you understand that we're together?
With who?
With her! She's the wife.
I thought since he was all alone...
The FSB (Federal Security Service)
and Putin
would make the most of the situation
and try to make sure he's dead.
You've lost your mind!
Leave calmly.
I'm not leaving, don't worry.
No need to get hysterical.
She's his wife!
You are making a scene. Just go wait outside.
We demand the immediate release of Alexei
because right now, in this hospital, there are more police
and government agents than doctors.
We've come to the conclusion that, judging by the fact
there were no poisons found in his blood,
or other biological materials, he has a metabolic disorder,
lowering of blood sugar levels, to be specific.
We're hearing state news agencies here that are backed
by the Kremlin suggesting that hallucinogenic drugs
may be involved, but not poisoning.
There are unverified accounts
that he drank moonshine last night.
Like most liberals, Navalny takes an anti-depressant from the U.S.
that's illegal in Russia.
I look at how these opposition people live,
they get drunk, use cocaine, endless homosexuality and orgies
and on and on, it's sickening.
KIRA YARMYSH NAVALNY'S PRESS SECRETARY
-Are you rolling? -I'm rolling.
As some of you know, Alexei Navalny collapsed today
on his way from Tomsk to Moscow.
We still don't have a diagnosis and don't know why this happened.
I will be reporting any information as we get it.
Only rely on this feed and do not trust any other sources.
"Release Alexei"
What else can we do? Nothing.
They're murderers, plain and simple.
He is... he is being murdered, I think.
Or at least they're covering up their tracks.
He is a good man who could have left Russia!
He didn't!
He has always told the truth!
-Why are you detaining her? -For what? I'm by myself here!
-On what grounds? -I'm standing alone!
When I finally entered the ICU
his eyes were slightly open and
he was convulsing and he was bending.
I knew that these people were lying to me.
I had to do everything I could to get him out of there.
Calm down.
I'm completely calm.
All of these items are mine
and I'm taking them with me.
What will you do next?
We will demand that he's released, so we can take him to a European hospital
where normal medical treatment can take place.
I hope that he gets better soon and, if requested
ANGELA MERKEL CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY
Germany, like France, will offer any medical help he needs.
This morning, an air ambulance from a German charity landed.
We have to make sure his condition is completely stable.
We cannot transfer him in this state even if his family have consented to it.
We think the transfer was denied
to give time for the poison to disappear from Alexei's system.
Stop speculating that we're hiding something.
Everything we are doing is in the best interest of the patient.
Can you say for certain that he has not been poisoned?
It was clear they were not letting me take him and were playing for time.
In order to take him l would have to break in,
grab him, and drag him out of the room.
So l had no idea how to get him out.
Suddenly,
I received a text from one of the doctors
"Come back" with a smiley face at the end.
We are not against releasing the patient
to any hospital the family waits.
Resolving this issue took a lot of work
by our specialist doctors and my entire team.
We never even heard the words "thank you" for our work, from any of you.
Just the basic words "thank you."
The moment when I heard the news that Navalny was poisoned,
my first thought was, "Can this be the Kremlin?
Would they be so dumb to try to kill an opposition figure?
The main opposition figure?"
I was skeptical. I thought,
"Maybe it's one of the many oligarchs on whose feet he has stepped.
Either it's a state-ordered attack, or it is somebody who is trying
to assassinate opposition figures in order to appease Putin."
The closest anyone's come to tracing a poisoning to Vladimir Putin.
The 2018 attack in Salisbury, England.
A defiant Kremlin insisting again that it had nothing to do
with the brazen assassination attempt of former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal.
Skripal was poisoned by the military-grade nerve agent Novichok.
The insidiousness of Novichok is that it actually starts switching off
your nerve connectors in your body, one by one.
If it's dosed properly, it will just turn you off as a body.
But then within hours, any trace, it will disappear.
So it will always, forever look like it was a natural death.
And this is why it appears to be the preferred form of killing
for people whose death will be under public scrutiny,
such as Navalny.
AUGUST 22, 2020 BERLIN, GERMANY
There was a lot of pressure for us to start investigating.
Media partners in Russia reached out to us
and said, "Can you help?"
We looked at it, and we thought, "There's no hope in hell
we can investigate a crime that happened in Russia,
in the remote corners of Siberia, sitting here comfortably in Europe."
We didn't even try in the beginning.
Alexei Navalny arrives at this hospital in Berlin
with his wife, Yulia.
A spokesperson tweeted, "The struggle for Alexei's life
and health is just beginning."
Here at the hospital, both inside and out, he'll be watched.
I didn't let anyone take photos of Alexei
and I myself didn't take any pictures
not in the hospital or on the plane.
Because, to be honest, I was very afraid that
these would be his last photographs.
And I wanted us all to remember him... and that in my phone he would be
a man full of life, happy, healthy, and not with a swarm of tubes.
To have your dad...
an opposition leader...
being poisoned by we don't know what, we don't know how...
we don't know when, and just be in a random hospital.
It was just...
It was surreal. It was literally like a book.
The doctors assured they can't say anything about his brain,
to which extent he will recover, even if they manage to wake him up.
Many millions of Navalny supporters were trying to figure out how to help.
We, in Berlin, are a small team.
We had to dive into, actually, like, getting things done.
We all were very skeptical about investigating Alexei's poisoning.
As opposed to previous cases,
this poisoning took place on the Russian soil,
so no one is going to share CCTV footage with us.
We're not going to have fancy videos from the airport
where the poisoners fly in and out.
And as much as it hurts to admit,
while Putin is in power, we'll never find out the truth.
Yulia, how is your husband this morning?
After a week, I was unexpectedly called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
They said, "We have discovered that your husband was poisoned
with an agent from the Novichok group."
It was so crazy. Like, it's Putin's signature poison.
Novichok! It can't be.
We were actually so shocked,
that he didn't just decide to murder him, but to poison.
And not just to poison, but exactly Novichok.
This was, like, really, like, leaving a signature on the crime scene.
When you come to a room of a comatose patient,
you are starting to just tell him the news.
Telling him his story.
"Alexei, don't worry. You were poisoned. There was a murder attempt.
Putin tried to kill you with Novichok."
And he opened his, like, blue eyes wide
and looked at me and said, very clear...
"What the fuck? That is so stupid!"
"Come on. Poisoned? I don't believe it."
Like, he's back. This is Alexei.
Putin's supposed to be not so stupid to use this Novichok.
His wording, his expletive, his intonation.
If you want to kill someone, just shoot him.
Jesus Christ.
Like, real Alexei.
It's impossible to believe it. It's kind of stupid.
The whole idea of poisoning with a chemical weapon,
what the fuck?
This is why this is so smart, because even reasonable people,
they refuse to believe like, "What? Come on. Poisoned?
Seriously?"
The crime against Alexei Navalny
is against the basic values
and fundamental rights we support.
It raises serious questions
which only the Russian government can, and must, answer.
The fate of Alexei Navalny has made headlines around the world.
Now, the world expects answers.
Traditional journalism implies you meeting with a source and that source
telling you a story.
In today's world of fake news, we don't trust sources,
because we don't trust humans.
We trust data.
Bellingcat is an organization of digital nerds,
most of us with a little bit of almost autistic-like...
fascination with numbers.
Every time you use your e-mail, you make a phone call,
make a doctor's appointment, take a plane or a train,
any time you use the ATM,
every time you actually look at the screen of your phone,
that leaves a trace.
In a place like Russia,
imagine the person who works at a travel agency
that has access to the flight manifests,
they're getting, what, 25 bucks a day as a salary.
And then for another 25,
they will be able to sell that flight manifest
to anybody who asks for it,
just because they'll double their income for the day.
This is a whole industry.
Data brokers are on the dark web.
You negotiate the price, and within a few minutes, they say,
"Yep, I can get that data for you by tomorrow."
And then you have to send Bitcoin.
Now, Bellingcat can't pay for that data because it's a foundation,
so I have to pay for that data myself.
Over the last five years of me working on data journalism,
I would say I've spent 150,000 dollars.
My wife has no idea about this.
My wife suspects I've spent probably two or three thousand.
If she knew the real quantum,
she wouldn't be my wife.
But she's gonna watch the movie.
-She's not watching this movie. -You just outed yourself.
I'm absolutely sure she's not watching this movie now.
I have been issued a special secret cap so nobody will recognize me.
I have a secret mask
and if that's not enough for total secrecy
I have my wheelchair.
Our expectation was, once he's released from intensive care,
he will have a desire to go to Russia immediately.
To our great relief, he told me,
"I better spend several months here.
I want to go back to Russia strong and fully recovered."
Hi, everybody, this is Zakhar Navalny and you're watching my vlog,
"The Daily Charité."
For the longest time, I wasn't sure what to make of Navalny.
I had always wondered how much of an independent figure he is,
or is he one of the many fake opposition figure
created by the Kremlin?
I've criticized him on Twitter.
I mean, he was known for having flirted with the extreme right
in the early days of his career.
He'd walked side-by-side with some pretty nasty
nationalists and racists.
Had he moved beyond that?
Had he actually become a reverse dark knight?
Alexei Navalny! He is with us today at the Russian March.
"RUSSIAN MARCH" 2011
Hello everyone, happy holiday! Glory to Russia!
Those who have gathered here can kick these thieving assholes
out of the Kremlin tomorrow.
Now like never before we need a slogan to unite us.
-One for all! -And all for one!
Glory to Russia and happy holiday!
Within all my career,
I've been asked the same 15 questions all the time.
Are you afraid?
Are you working for Kremlin? What is your family doing?
You have a responsibility for your family.
When, if it's foreign journalist,
they're asking about nationalism and Russian March.
And every one of them just, Jesus Christ, just watch previous interviews.
Hold on. Were there not a couple of Sieg Heil-ers at that thing?
Sorry?
Were there not a couple of Nazi guys at that march?
Certainly a Sieg Heil-er would be a different category
that you would not want to associate with or march beside.
Well, in the normal world, in the normal political system,
of course, I would never be within the same political party with them.
But we are creating coalition,
broader coalition to fight the regime just to achieve the situation
where everyone can participate in election.
'Cause a lot of politicians would be uncomfortable
even associating or being in the same photograph as one of these guys.
-No, I... -You're comfortable with that?
I'm okay with that, and I'm...
I consider, it's my political superpower, I can talk to everyone.
Anyway, well, they are citizen of Russian Federation,
and if I want to fight Putin, if I want to be a leader of a country,
I cannot just ignore the huge part of it.
Well, there are a lot of people who call themselves nationalists.
Okay, let's discuss it.
We're living in the country when they are poisoning
a politician and killing people.
And arresting people for nothing.
So, of course, I am totally fine
to sit with a guy whose rally
looks kind of...
not very good for me.
Hi, this is Navalny
and I'm extremely glad to be able to say that again.
The Kremlin is fantasizing about me not going home
but the Anti-Corruption Foundation is carrying on the work
while I focus on my rehabilitation before returning to Russia.
The Russian media didn't find anything,
and German investigators didn't have the jurisdiction.
So we realized there's nobody who's going to actually
actively investigate this...
unless we jump into this.
We knew that the poison was Novichok, and Novichok,
we had proven in a previous investigation,
is only manufactured in this facility called the Signal Institute.
The Signal Institute in Moscow works under the guise of a R&D center
that develops advanced forms of sports, nutrition drinks.
That's the legend.
Yet, they employ, for this work,
12 scientists whose only experience and background
is in chemical weapons.
Our hypothesis?
This is the entity that actually provides the poison for the killers
who travel around the world poisoning people with Novichok.
So what we did is we bought from the Russian black market
the phone records for the head of the Signal Institute.
We looked at numbers that only appear just before the poisoning of Navalny...
and those were suspicious.
But once we have a suspicious number...
you go through a number of Russian apps that allow you to see
how that phone number is listed in other people's phonebooks.
So, for example, I put in my number and it will show up as
Christo the journalist from Bellingcat,
because somebody would have put my name into their phonebook
and that description would have been shared into this app.
First number I looked up,
showed up as "Alexey doctor from FSB."
Well, that was interesting. A doctor from FSB? Alexey?
But that was not enough.
We couldn't place a real person behind this name.
Then I would look up if this number...
showed up in any car registration databases.
And we found out an actual Alexey Alexandrov who owns a car
and this number was listed for contacting that person.
So, then you have a real person with a birthday.
Then, you look up his passport file, you see his face.
You repeat that many times with the other suspicious numbers,
and then you have a short list of interesting people.
And these became our prime suspects.
Now, we knew when Navalny had traveled to Siberia.
We had the actual passenger manifests
of six different flights that had flown into Novosibirsk,
where Navalny flew from Moscow, on the day before,
during, and after the day on which he arrived there.
So, we needed to see if any of those suspicious people
traveled to Siberia at the time of the poisoning,
and we found an overlap.
We found a nest of wasps we didn't know existed.
It's a domestic assassination machine on an industrial scale.
I was absolutely shocked that this was so fast,
and the whole plot disentangled so quickly,
so I just reached out by Twitter and said,
"Alexei, I think we may have found who poisoned you."
After I went out of the hospital,
I decided to move to Black Forest and live in some small village.
You can just walk for hours and not meet any person at all.
These are my German friends, actually.
The little pony is my friend and donkey is Yulia's friend.
And this is routine of our walk.
Come here, my little pony.
Isn't he sweet? Better than your donkey.
-Come here. -Everybody like the small pony.
-It's like usual. But donkey is like... -Come to me.
-You're scaring him. Go away. -No, you're scaring him.
Go away. You poor guy.
Donkey, hi. Of course, you like me.
Oh, come on.
This is a very evil woman.
Come on, my mighty horse. Come here. More carrots.
You'll grow big.
They are cute, but they are not very smart.
So, they decided,
for their fence, not to provide electricity.
Stop doing it!
Can I pick an apple, or can you?
Let's not film you stealing an apple, and where is it?
Over there.
It's no one's apple.
-Where? -Over there, there's a red one hanging.
Yulia want an apple and asked me to take it.
But it's Germany, so it's someone's apple.
-And there is a police over there. -I'll come there when it will be dark.
And no police.
So, you're a Russian criminal who arrived to Germany?
No, it's, like... It's okay.
It belongs to, I don't know.
How do you know? How do you know that it belonged...
Because it's open place. There's no anything, which...
This is a very Russian style, you know, of thinking about property.
Like, it belong to everyone, because it's an open place.
Just come and get it.
The story of this guy who lives in Vienna but is Bulgarian,
but worked in Russia, and that he has all of his own money
and he spends it on investigations of Russian crimes.
He just sounded too suspicious.
Too good to be true. Too... capable?
He sounded a bit, you know, made up.
Are you confident that he is not MI6 or CIA?
I'm pretty confident. I wouldn't say I rule it out,
but I'm pretty confident that he's not.
I was suspicious about this guy from Twitter.
I just saw his old laptop
and all these tables with data.
Turns out, and I was very surprised, that the whole thing about Bellingcat
is just one smart guy, no CIA involved, no MI6.
He's just a nice and very kind Bulgarian nerd with a laptop.
here are all your flights
and these columns are from our three main suspects
in early 2017.
So as soon as I announced my candidacy for the presidency
they decided to kill me?
That was one of the first trips.
They aren't agents doing surveillance. They are murderers. You understand?
They began to prepare way back then.
One of them is the person who poisoned you.
I will show you photographs.
You'll tell me if you recognize any of the people in those photographs.
Oh, yes, that's a memorable face.
-Do you recognize him? -No, he just seems familiar.
But I couldn't say where I know him from.
I see.
He's not a typical agent.
I'd remember him if l saw him somewhere, but no, I don't...
Getting through emotionally to Alexei was a piece of cake.
Took literally an hour.
Getting through to Maria took much longer.
She was very tough. She never smiled.
She was the one vetting me, whether I am a spy or not.
How did they get to Tomsk?
To Tomsk?
They also went by car.
Just like you.
But we needed information that only his team would be privy to.
So we found a very workable arrangement,
which was completely ethical and acceptable to us.
We agreed that Maria Pevchikh would be working as part of our team
and she would not be sharing with Alexei all the information in real time
so that we wouldn't be influenced by the bias of the victim.
Murder is a terrific way to solve problems.
But once you've started killing, it's hard to stop.
So they will be furious when you publish all this.
You'll be their bitter enemy for the rest of your life.
KONSTANTIN KUDRYAVTSEV
MIKHAIL SHVETS AKA STEPANOV
When we discovered this clandestine operation,
it was so shocking that even to us, it looked unbelievable.
I mean, come on.
The government is paying a whole team of 20-plus people
whose only job is to poison other Russians?
That sounds improbable.
So we needed other journalists to look at it.
I would like to share the limelight with some global media,
so that it is validated by more than just us.
-So, CNN and Spiegel are fine with you? -Yeah. Absolutely.
That means that we need to film exactly like a week from now.
-Maybe, like... -Yeah.
Hello, this is Navalny. I know who wanted to kill me.
I know where they live. I know where they work.
I know their real names and fake names and I have their photographs.
We had a nightmare trying to get everybody to stick to the same time.
It's all timed for a simultaneous release.
All the media channels are going to drop the bombshell simultaneously.
There's a huge debate as to whether this was intended to incapacitate or kill.
Incapacitate or kill?
-Yeah. -I would say kill, 100 percent kill.
If, for example, Navalny had laundry returned
to him while he was staying at the Tomsk Hotel the afternoon
before he left would that be a point of access?
It's definitely a possibility.
The question is how well you can dose the agent that way.
You put, let's say, ten times the deadly dose on the clothing.
You must be sure, however, that at least one lethal dose gets into the body.
They all have such distinctive faces,
we should've noticed them.
Tomorrow we'll set up a phone with fake ID.
So if we can call them through this number, we can try to practical...
-We pretend to be someone else. -Yes, we can try to prank them.
Yes, of course.
Navalny will call personally these poisoners,
one by one, and we will record this.
Hi, this is Navalny.
You may remember me from trying to kill me.
The plan is to call them on publication day
before the news breaks.
Do you think there is any chance they'll say something over the phone?
It's unlikely. But what do we have to lose?
Alexei, great to see you.
-Hi. -Thank you very much for coming.
Is it your contention that Vladimir Putin must have been aware of this?
Of course, 100 percent.
It could have not happened without...
Reports from Der Spiegel, El Pais,
and CNN will be released simultaneously with this video.
These independent media organizations followed our investigation closely
and double-checked everything.
Who's the most stupid?
-Most stupid of them? -Yeah.
Well, definitely...
these are Spetsnaz guys with no real training.
I think it makes sense to try to prank stupid guys
and maybe these non-military guys.
When you were a kid, did you have any political awareness?
Was this a political family? Did your family talk about politics?
Yes, my family talks about politics all the time
and it was very...
They start to talk much more after Chernobyl disaster.
Because actually, my father and his family, they are from Chernobyl,
from the small village two kilometers away.
And, I would say, ten kilometers away from the nuclear station.
Everyone knows that there was an explosion of a nuclear station,
but news keeping silence and so all this nuclear
and radioactive dust
was on these fields, and they were forced to go
to plant potatoes just to prevent rumors,
just to explain population that everything is fine.
Everything is okay, go and work in the fields!
And with the first appearance of Putin on the screen,
I just felt it.
I have this same feeling like I am watching TV
and I am watching political lizard
and he's looking into my eyes and lying to me.
This is the biggest challenge for me.
I tried to practice juggling about a month
and because of coordination and balancing,
because you need some balance here, it's...
I'm very bad in it.
One, two, three...
I think he wants to make sure this hits home in Russian media.
And he thinks that's best done if he does it.
One more time.
So, we're not being journalists reporting about some politician,
but we're reporting about a politician who has his own YouTube show
with over 13 million followers, and who considers himself
half a journalist.
Yeah!
Actually, this first time you're lucky.
That's a very unusual situation, and it doesn't make things easier.
Mom, is this yours? No, you had water.
Hold my beer while I make a TikTok.
No, no, no.
Just the second one,
you just are filming me with the whole scheme and I'm asking,
-"How bizarre." -Okay.
How bizarre
Stop. Again.
How bizarre
You should remove second one.
-We can do that? -Yes, of course.
This is, you know, beauty of TikTok.
I don't know how... I don't know how to do that.
-Who's 19? -You, apparently.
Smile from the past
Elephants and acrobats Lions, snakes, monkeys
Pele speaks "righteous"
Sister Zina says "funky"
How bizarre.
WHEN YOU INVESTIGATE YOUR OWN MURDER...
How bizarre.
You know that Christo call it, "Moscow4."
-You know what is Moscow4? -No. What is that?
Well, the e-mail of the very top-brass guy from intelligence
was hacked several times
and his first password was Moscow1 and they hacked him.
So second his password was Moscow2,
and they hacked him as well.
And so the third time, he had password Moscow3.
And just guess what was his fourth password.
So, Moscow4 is the explanation of the stupidity of the system.
Dasha, you take my phone
and you'll be in the kitchen pretending you're
-General Bogdanov. -Could I see the...
I have no idea.
Check the number on caller ID.
-Plus 7. -And then?
495153541...
-It looks like a normal number? -There's nothing suspicious?
No.
Except that the last digit is missing.
Is that normal?
It's missing a digit.
It's just doesn't fit.
It doesn't fit, that's fine.
Okay, well, super, super.
Excellent, it works.
Tomorrow we will make these calls.
Honestly, I don't think it will work, because, well, FSB guys.
They supposed to be resistant to pranks.
-But Moscow4. -Moscow4.
Yes, and then we are ready to push the button
and everything will be published exactly at 12:00.
And also, I will publish my TikTok.
I recorded today.
And we'll have a kind of 15 minutes of shame with it.
Okay, see you tomorrow!
PUBLICATION DAY 4:30 A.M.
Hello.
Now, I totally feel like I am an undercover agent
with the wired up.
Are you not nervous?
-Sorry? -Are you nervous?
-No. -Please, come on. A little bit.
Hello.
Vladimir Alexandrovich.
Good morning.
Do you recognize me?
Hello, hello?
Its Alexei Navalny calling
and I was hoping you could tell me why you wanted to kill me?
What specific problem do you have with me?
He hung up.
Oh, my God, you ruined their day.
Not just today, I guess.
-Hello. -Hello, Alexey Alexandrovich?
Yes.
Greetings. My name is Alexei Navalny
and I'm calling to ask why you wanted to kill me.
Alexey Alexandrovich?
Will we play silence games?
He hung up.
He's off?
-Hung up. -Maybe try it the prank way.
Okay.
Hello.
Hello, Mikhail Mikhailovich?
Yes.
This is Maxim Ustinov.
I'm the assistant of Nikolai Patrushev.
Vladimir Bogdanov gave me your phone number.
Good morning. Excuse me for calling so early.
It's okay.
-It's rather urgent. -Of course, of course.
Our bosses are demanding a report
about why things didn't work out in Tomsk.
What's the question? I don't understand.
Mikhail Mikhailovich, is it you?
No, it's not me.
I don't understand. Who are you?
I'm the assistant of Nikolai Patrushev.
Who is Nikolai Patrushev?
Mikhail Mikhailovich, are you going to play games with me?
I'm done with your game.
I know who you are. Goodbye.
He hung up.
That was a freaking scared guy.
-He recognized your voice? -Yep, yep.
Muscle is not stupid.
I really think a scientist might talk to you.
One percent chance.
Okay. Let's try to reach some scientists.
Kudryavtstev's interesting.
Hello.
Konstantin?
Yes, hello.
This is Maxim Ustinov
aide to Nikolai Patrushev.
I received your number from Vladimir Bogdanov.
l apologize for calling so early, but I urgently require ten minutes
of your time.
Yeah yeah, all right.
So, I must get
a statement from each unit member
about what went wrong in Tomsk.
Why did the Navalny operation fail?
I will gladly help, but I'm home with Coronavirus.
That is why I'm calling you.
And what about Makshakov? Have you considered calling him?
Of course, I will call Makshakov
this is a simple procedure.
I'm calling Alexandrov, Makshakov, Tayakin
and I will ask each of them to briefly explain
what went wrong
and what should be done next time to succeed.
I have been wondering the same thing myself.
I would rate the job as well done.
We did it just as planned,
the way we rehearsed it many times.
But in our profession, as you know, there are lots of unknowns and nuances.
We try to take everything into account, as much as we can.
But when the flight made an emergency landing
the situation changed, not in our favor.
If the flight was a bit longer, I think things would have gone the other way.
If he was in the air longer?
The medics on the ground acted right away.
They injected him with an antidote of some sort.
So, if they were in the air longer, things would have gone as planned.
So it seems the dose was underestimated.
Why?
Our calculations were good, we even applied extra.
All right. Now, please tell me about the specific technique.
How exactly was the substance administered?
Well, this should be communicated via a secure channel.
No, no, it's not necessary.
You need to consider who I'm writing this report for.
At this level there is no need for secure channels.
This high up, they don't want technical details.
How can I explain the delivery method?
Just tell me in the simplest terms possible.
You don't know?
I know some things and not others. Regardless, I have to ask you.
These are the questions I have to ask so I'm asking them.
Well, I can't tell you that over this phone.
Anyway, what happened with his belongings?
The last time I saw them they were in Omsk.
We left them there after we worked on them.
I have no idea where they finally ended up.
I can only say that when we arrived, they were given to us by the local guys
from the Omsk police force.
How are they called...
-Transport police. -Yes, yes.
So, the clothes are processed, everything is fine with them?
When we finished working on them everything was clean.
Which article of clothing did you focus on?
Which garment had the highest risk factor?
The underpants.
The inner part, where the crotch is.
The crotch of the underpants?
The codpiece, as they call it. By the seams.
Wait, this is important.
Who told you that the crotch of the underpants had to be processed?
Makshakov?
Yes.
Do you remember the color of the underpants?
-Blue. -Blue. Blue.
And on the pants?
There was a possibility of residue there,
so we cleaned them as well
so that there would be no traces left.
Then how did the Germans detect it?
Maybe they have special methods of detection.
On which part of the body could they have found traces?
There was nothing on the body. Probably it was in the blood.
His body was also cleaned in our hospital.
I have, well, a somewhat peculiar question.
You traveled with Navalny several times, including to Kirov in 2017.
So what is your assessment of him as a person?
He never makes any unnecessary moves. That's my opinion.
Careful and meticulous at all times.
Perhaps he had a hunch our guys were following him.
-You still there? -Yes, yes, I'm listening, I'm writing.
Do you want to add anything?
What else do you consider important to add to my report?
No, I think this was probably all. Maybe too much.
Honestly, I am shocked by the questions.
I hope you understand why.
Konstantin, we are all shocked. Imagine how shocked I am.
All right.
Talk to you later then.
All the best, bye.
-Now we got everything, yes. -How could you do this?
-Yes.
So, now we know everything like...
Moscow4.
-Oh, my fucking God. -Actually, he's not a muscle.
He's a chemist. He said he's a chemist.
-Yes. -He spilled the whole story.
This is unbelievable.
-Poor guy. -Poor guy.
-They will kill him. They will kill him. -They will kill him, literally.
I think you'll be president, seriously, after this.
-I think after this... -I think...
...they will definitely kill me.
Poor Kudryavtsev.
-Poor Kudryavtsev. -Poor Kudryavtsev.
Yes. He's a dead man. Let's offer him to defect.
-Let's arrange for him the whole thing. -Seriously.
'Cause I think that's a humanitarian thing to do.
He will be in a ditch by tomorrow.
-Oh, fuck, they'll just kill him. -No, no, no.
They will kill him.
Okay, well, Spiegel has been begging me to call them since the morning.
Can I tell them this already?
-Confidentially? -Let's just decide.
Are we going to publish this conversation?
-Yeah. -Because I think we should wait for a...
Putin's press conference, at the very least.
Sorry?
To Putin's press conference, at the very least.
It is on Wednesday or Thursday?
-Thursday. -The 17th.
This is all very interesting. Okay, good.
DECEMBER 14, 2020 PUBLICATION OF INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS
Hi, this is Navalny. Behind me you can see...
Hi, this is Navalny. Behind me you see a flow chart like in a movie.
But there's one big difference. This isn't a movie, it's real life.
These people tried to kill me.
Swipe up to see our crazy investigation into the secret FSB kill team.
"An operation on this scale
could only have been approved by Vladimir Putin."
"I accuse him of state terrorism."
The posts are ready.
The publication is ready, the video is ready.
-Even the TikTok is ready. -Everything's ready. I'm just nervous.
It's time!
Christo, before pushing this button, I want to say that was amazing job.
Thank you everyone for your contribution, guys.
-Yeah! -Yeah!
-High-five. -High-five.
Okay, good.
Good, good, good, good. Let's go.
Now an exclusive investigation can reveal a top-secret mission...
An elite team of operatives has been tracking Navalny's every move
for more than three years.
Hi, this is Navalny. I know who wanted to kill me.
I know where they live and work.
I know their fake and real names. I have their photos.
Thank you very much.
It's an honor for me to be on such a big television of Spain
and I'm very pleased that you are paying attention
to this situation. So, thank you very much.
This scheme, which looks like it's from the movies,
but in this particular case, it's a real scheme
with real people.
Putin on the very top.
In mid-August, Navalny and his team traveled to Siberia.
At least five members of the FSB unit make the same journey
on different flights.
Well, they can't be tailing him now, but of course, I'm sure they're trying to.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Back in Tomsk, there was a surge in communications among the FSB unit
and their bosses.
If it was expected that Navalny would die on the flight,
they were now scrambling to deal with a very different situation.
We enter a run-down apartment building on the outskirts of Moscow
where operative Oleg Tayakin lives.
My name is Clarissa Ward. I work for CNN.
Can I ask you a couple of questions?
I'd like to know
was it your team that poisoned Navalny?
Was it your team that...
So, you've said that you want to go back to Russia.
You're aware of the risks of going back?
-Definitely. -Why do you want to go back?
I don't want these, you know, groups of killer exist in Russia.
I don't want Putin being president. I don't want him being czar of Russia.
I want to go back and try to change it.
-That was fantastic piece. -Yeah.
We just hit a million views.
-For dream team. -Absolutely.
-Cheers. -Cheers.
It's nonsense.
Since December 2016, eight assassins, right?
They've been hunting him but they can't poison him in Moscow.
They have to follow him all over.
Eight guys with degrees in chemistry and so on
can't do anything to one clunkhead for years!
Today I watched TikTok with my child
and suddenly I see Alexei Navalny
opening his mouth to American songs.
"He opened his mouth to American songs."
On TikTok. By the way...
My TikTok has more than a million views.
I'll meet him at the airport and take him to a mental hospital.
For real, if he's got as far as TikTok, it's bad.
They are lying.
-Yeah, crazy stuff, yeah? -Yes, yes, yes.
Crazy, funny stuff like...
Who's he?
Jesus. Fuck. Bowtie. Where did they dig up this bum?
But think about it, they're talking about this all the time.
-Yes -They're talking about you.
In their version, This is very funny."
But the main point is they have a big problem.
-Otherwise they would not launch it. -Yep. Right, right, right.
Because, well, it's first channel.
They allowed the state number one channel that has never mentioned his name
to only talk about him now.
Yes, you're absolutely right. This is a main point.
It's not affordable for them to keep silence.
-So, how's it looking? -It'll be good.
I wanted to ask you how you're feeling?
I'm fine. I definitely feel like I'm struggling with my English.
No, you're not.
You have pretty angry eyes.
-Angry? -Yes.
So if you can, try to look a little kinder.
-A little more pleasant. -Okay.
Is it pissing you off that he's asking you so much about the past?
-About Chernobyl and such? -No, no. I was prepared for that.
Let me stand up.
Go on.
-About Soviet Union and all that? -No, he told me he was gonna ask that.
I can regulate that. But how long do you want to...
No, he can ask this stuff as long as he wants.
It's just that I realize that he's filming it all for the movie
he's gonna release if l get whacked.
Let's play some chess.
Chess? No.
She plays chess... chess...
-Better than all others in our family. -...better than everyone in our family.
And because of this series...
-Queen's Gambit. -...Queen's Gambit...
...she's demanding that everyone should
-play chess. -But nobody is playing.
That is why I'm playing with the phone.
I definitely preferCall of Duty.
I definitely prefer chess.
I prefer shopping.
-Did you pack a mask? -Yes, but can you get me another one?
Ready for a 12-hour flight.
We have to sit down for good luck.
Got your passport?
Tickets? Phone? Charger? Computer?
Starting from 13 years old, I would think about what would I do,
if my dad was killed?
We never had, like, the talk.
You know, it's not anything that you can, like, sit at the table and discuss.
So, it's nice opportunity for you, Dasha, to see the snow.
So much snow before you go to L.A., right?
There is snow in California.
There was a point a year ago, where my dad
was almost not there for my high school graduation.
He was in jail once again and, like, the whole day,
I was just thinking about how my dad would've been...
I'm sorry.
My dad would've been proud to see me walk on the stage
and get my certificate.
And he wouldn't get that option,
because he was in jail for doing the right thing.
I know that my dad misses Russia...
even though it's scary to go back.
And if he didn't go back,
I would say, "You need to go back and fight."
It's something worth fighting for.
President Putin's annual press conference will begin at any moment.
We are getting questions from regional, national, and international journalists.
Good afternoon. Greetings, everyone.
No topic brought up to the president will go unanswered.
This week, an investigative report came out on Alexei Navalny.
Why has a criminal investigation of his poisoning still not been initiated?
With regards to that patient in the Berlin clinic.
Look, we understand perfectly what this is all about.
This is no investigation, it's just a way of giving legal validation
to material collected by U.S. intelligence services.
If what I'm saying is correct, and l assure you that it is,
it means that this patient at the Berlin clinic
is receiving support from the CIA.
His favorite, favorite ultimate answer for everything is CIA.
But that doesn't mean he should be poisoned.
Who cares about him?
If that was the intent, they would have finished him off.
But when his wife made the request, I gave orders to release him to Germany.
The person doing this is trying to elevate himself to a certain level
and get attention, as if to say, "Look at me, look who my opponent is."
"I'm a person of equal caliber."
"Treat me as a person of national significance."
Great, great, great, great.
-Very good. -Of course.
Because this is just amazing pass to us.
Now we have a ball,
because he said, like, "Well, if we want to poison him,
of course, we would have poisoned him."
So Kudryavtsev just will, just... We will...
I mean, the whole argumentation, we will smash it with Kudryavtsev with our piece.
DECEMBER 21, 2020 PUBLICATION OF KUDRYAVTSEV PHONE CALL
What happened with his belongings?
The last time I saw them they were in Omsk.
I'm just very curious how people will react to it,
whether they will be as astonished as we are. Hopefully they will be.
'Cause nothing like that's ever happened to anyone.
Okay, The Insider is up.
The Insider's up? Excellent.
Bellingcat isn't, but The Insider is so I'm publishing.
It's up.
Now the PR hurricane. Let's go.
Facebook done. VKontake done.
Just Telegram left.
10,303 VIEWS - POSTED 6 MINUTES AGO
That's totally unbelievable.
I would never believe it if I wasn't part of it.
Three hundred...
Three hundred thousand views for 20 minutes.
That's nuts.
Will we hit a million in the first hour?
Are we getting close?
It's possible.
One hour later,
one million views.
Bjork.
Maria.
Cool.
The poisoning of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny
has taken an even more bizarre turn.
If this was a Hollywood movie, you would say it was over the top,
but this is not.
This is real, and boy, does this conversation punch a giant hole
in the Kremlin's narrative.
Surely this is hugely embarrassing for the Kremlin and for the FSB.
Absolutely.
It's embarrassing for Mr. Kudryavtsev. It's embarrassing for the FSB.
It's embarrassing for the Kremlin.
The FSB has said that the video of the conversation
posted on Navalny's YouTube channel was fake,
and that the phone call was a provocation aimed at discrediting the agency.
Navalny is suffering from delusion of persecution.
Otherwise, there's a Freudian fixation on his own crotch area.
This is probably how all this should be treated.
CHRISTO GROSEV'S REACTIONS SUM IT UP PERFECTLY
WORKING AS A RUSSIAN SPY: EXPECTATION - REALITY:
"I NEED YOUR UNDERPANTS"
"FUCK"
Guess how many views we have.
How many?
7.7 million in 7 hours.
What?
7.7 million views in 7 hours.
-I can't believe it. -Yes. Amazing.
How is President Navalny different from President Putin?
Well, my major task as a president just to prevent,
you know, this damn circle of re-establish of authoritarian regime.
In authoritarian country,
you are pro-authoritarian leader or you're against authoritarian leader.
So, we are in more primitive politics like human rights,
freedom of speech, fair election.
The power and money, tax money,
they supposed to belong to the local communities.
And in Russia, everything decided in Moscow.
So, being a president and just having this,
you know, big pie of my power
and I will cut it for the future of Russia.
This morning, I was doing my therapy and I started thinking
I am basically recovered, very close to perfect health.
Everything that remains, I can treat at home.
So on Sunday, January 17, I will be returning to Moscow
and I hope to see you there.
JANUARY 17, 2021 DAY OF RETURN TO RUSSIA
I apologize. I am sorry for the record.
But just five minutes ago,
I told Daniel to get the fuck out of here with his camera, so, like...
I apologize for that, because, well, it's...
Everything is, like...
Everything is happening in the last ten minutes,
and I have to make, like, millions of e-mails.
And... Leonid, have a seat. Maria, have a seat.
You make me nervous because you're standing over me, sorry.
These are my court papers.
We should have gotten some warmer clothes.
You might not get to wear them.
That's your lawyer talking, you should think about that.
My mom told me to remind you to "sit for the road."
I didn't want to bother you but now I can tell her you did it.
Sorry, I have to sit.
It's a Russian superstition, but it's important.
So, we have passports, phones, laptops...
The whole point of "sitting for the road"
is to have a moment of stillness and quiet.
Godspeed.
EURO NEWS
Alexei, how do you feel?
I feel better with every moment we get closer to Russia.
I will make an address
to all of you once we are at the airport in Moscow.
They won't let us film in Moscow.
Are you saying free speech is suppressed in Russia?
I don't think so.
Everything will be fine, we will get a chance to talk.
What if they detain you as we land?
I want to ask our camera guy to show you the main entrance of the airport,
so you can see how many people are here to greet Alexei Navalny.
Dear citizens, please leave the area. Only ticketed passengers allowed.
Since Navalny decided to come back, we have to greet him
because he is now the symbol of Russia's freedom.
In a few minutes, we will begin our final descent.
Alexei, a comment please.
Alexei will not be making any comments now.
Hello, may I take a selfie?
And I would like to say thank you for your work.
The president of the great Russia of tomorrow.
Not quite yet.
I hope everything will be okay when we land.
-Thank you very much. -Very nice of you.
The closer Navalny's plane gets to Moscow the harsher the police are behaving.
Looks like they are taking her to the police van while she is screaming.
On what grounds are you arresting me?
The police just grabbed me and I don't know where they're taking me.
Where are you taking me?
The anti-riot police just started arresting everybody,
including journalists, live on the air. This is crazy.
Jesus. Jesus.
I've never seen anything like this.
Putin's shit!
There's no way they're not going to arrest him.
I don't think that they will let him come to the front.
I think they're going to yank him away before anybody else is let off the plane.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are ready for landing.
Please fasten your seatbelts
and make sure your tray table is stowed.
They're headed away from the airport.
This is the plane and this is Moscow.
And this is the plane, and this is Moscow.
So far, it's not clear what they are doing.
Dear friends, captain speaking.
We are not permitted to land at Vnukovo Airport
due to technical issues on the ground.
There are several other flights circling ahead of us.
I would like to apologize to everyone!
We were expecting this!
It's climbed to 8000 feet.
Looks like it's leaving the holding pattern.
10,000 feet. It has climbed a lot.
It looks as if someone's nerves have snapped.
It's a hot potato, really. I mean...
They're realized that it's not possible to control the crowd...
and they chickened out.
"Airplane back to Vnukovo Airport."
Shame!
Ladies and gentlemen, we have landed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport.
Local time is 8:13 p.m.
Everyone's asking if I'm afraid.
I am not afraid.
All the charges against me have been fabricated
and all these threats that they tried to scare me with are lies.
Truth is on my side and so is the law.
So I'm not afraid of anything and I ask you not to be afraid either.
Thanks. Let's go to passport control.
Hello, you have been waiting for me?
I really missed you guys.
Mask.
It's my passport.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
Hello.
Documents please.
You must come with us.
Can my lawyer come?
If you're arresting him, have all the documents.
All the previous court decisions, all the applications.
Are you refusing to follow us?
No, he's not refusing. He has a right to have his lawyer with him.
If you are refusing, we will have to use force.
No need, just let my lawyer come back through.
I have all the documents Are you listening to me?
It is also in your interest to let me go with him.
I have all the necessary documents.
-Everything okay? -Yes, please go ahead.
Thank you, and your husband.
Thank you very much, bye.
They are so scared of Alexei
that they had to lock down everything around here.
The most important thing Alexei said today is, he's not afraid.
And I'm not afraid either, and I urge you not to be afraid.
Thank you very much for your support.
Thank you, Yulia!
Good job, Yulia!
While Navalny was recovering in Germany,
His team was making a top-secret investigative video.
Two days after Navalny returned to Russia, they released
"Putin's Palace: History of the World's Biggest Bribe."
Within a week it was viewed over 100 million times.
Navalny's arrest and the video's release
inspired widespread protests across Russia.
Let him go! Let him go!
Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation was designated an extremist organization.
Navalny's key team members continue their work in exile.
Maria and Christo are still searching for Kudryavtsev,
who has been missing since the phone call.
Hey, hello!
That's my donkey!
This is how Zakhar gives it to them.
In his first month at Pokrov Penal Colony No. 2,
Navalny narrowly survived a hunger strike.
He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Alexei, if you are arrested and thrown in prison
or the unthinkable happens and you're killed,
what message do you leave behind to the Russian people?
My message...
for the situation when I am killed is very simple, not give up.
Do me a favor, answer this one in Russian.
Listen, I've got something very obvious to tell you.
You're not allowed to give up.
If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong.
We need to utilize this power
to not give up, to remember we are a huge power
that...
is being oppressed by these bad dudes.
We don't realize how strong we actually are.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.
So don't be inactive.