Navalny interview is a damning indictment from beyond the grave
After the fall of communism, Russia faced a choice between growing authoritarianism and kleptocracy or more freedom, democracy and ultimately prosperity.
Alexei Navalny embodied that alternative to the dark years of Vladimir Putin. He represented a future many there yearn for – a vision dealt a body blow by his death.
The interview acquired by Sky News underlines what Mr Navalny offered. It reminds us of what he was, a new kind of politician for Russia, young charismatic, forward looking and engaging.
“I am an optimist,” he tells the camera in the interview four years ago, “I hope that this 20 years of Putin is not set in stone. We weren’t doomed to it, we weren’t meant to go in that direction.”
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Unseen Navalny interview unearthed
It was one of the last interviews he would give in full health A few months later he was poisoned before spending three years in jail and ultimately dying in custody.
It was never inevitable Russia would take the path it has under Mr Putin, Mr Navalny always believed. But he was withering about the damage it has done to the country.
“The entire Putin elite is absolutely corrupt, and it is absolutely colonially minded. They have moved all their families, their children, their assets to the West, and they treat our country as a free hunting zone; and that’s exactly how it works.”
Mr Navalny and his organisation fought with extraordinary courage against that corruption, with video exposes claiming to show the lavish lifestyles of Mr Putin and his elite.
The interview gives insights into what that meant for his staff and supporters:
“It will probably be difficult to find a single person in our office who has not been arrested for a period of 10, 15 or 30 days. And many have criminal cases against them that are either suspended or are ongoing.”
But some of Mr Navalny’s strongest words are against the West and Britain in particular for letting Mr Putin and his cronies get away with it.
Mr Navalny described the lawyers and others in the UK who enable Russians to bring their money here and buy respectability.
Alexei Navalny is seen behind the bars in the police van after he was detained during protests in Moscow in 2012
Pic: AP
“These people, they will appear very civilised, we will be pleased to chat with them if they sit next to us, they will be wearing a tie and fine manners, and at the same time they are serving the interests of utter, complete bandits.”
It is a damning indictment from beyond the grave of the way London and the UK has allegedly enabled Mr Putin and his cronies to stash their dirty money abroad.
One Russian exile who knew Mr Navalny told us the sanctions imposed by the UK in the wake of Mr Navalny’s death have also been inadequate.
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“He liked humour so I feel like he would laugh at this point because from what we’ve seen in recent days, if this is everything we’re going to see in response to Navalny’s death, they look quite weak and a bit pathetic.”
Mr Navalny always maintained the Putin years have been an aberration. Russia will eventually revert to a freer more open future he claimed.
While he was alive that vision seemed more plausible. Without him it is harder to imagine Russia ever recovering from the ordeal imposed by Mr Putin.
He tells the interviewer: “I hope that 10 years from now, if you interview me again, I’ll be able to tell you how we managed to overcome the corrupt money laundering.”
Aspirations for Russia that now seem even more hopeless without him.
More than 100 politicians from 24 different countries, including the UK, the US and the EU, have written a joint letter condemning China over the “arbitrary detention and unfair trial” of Jimmy Lai, a tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner.
The parliamentarians, led by senior British Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, are “urgently” demanding the immediate release of the 77-year-old British citizen, who has been held in solitary confinement at a maximum security prison in Hong Kong for almost four years.
The letter – which will be embarrassing for Beijing – was made public on the eve of Mr Lai’s trial resuming and on the day after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a G20 summit of economic powers in Brazil.
It also comes as Hong Kong jailed 45 pro-democracy activists.
The group of politicians, who also include representatives from Canada, Australia, Spain, Germany, Ukraine and France, said Mr Lai’s treatment was “inhumane”.
“He is being tried on trumped-up charges arising from his peaceful promotion of democracy, his journalism and his human rights advocacy,” they wrote in the letter, which has been seen by Sky News.
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Starmer meets Chinese president
“The world is watching as the rule of law, media freedom and human rights in Hong Kong are eroded and undermined.
“We stand together in our defence of these fundamental freedoms and in our demand that Jimmy Lai be released immediately and unconditionally.”
Sir Keir raised the case of Mr Lai during remarks released at the start of his talks with Mr Xi on Monday – the first meeting between a British prime minister and the Chinese leader in six years.
The prime minister could be heard expressing concerns about reports of Mr Lai’s deteriorating health. However, he did not appear to call for his immediate release.
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From October: ‘This is what Hong Kong is’
Ms Kearns, the MP for Rutland and Stamford in the East Midlands, said the meeting had been an opportunity to be unequivocal that the UK expects Mr Lai to be freed.
“Jimmy Lai is being inhumanely persecuted for standing up for basic human values,” she said in a statement, released alongside the letter.
“He represents the flame of freedom millions seek around the world.
“We have a duty to fight for Jimmy Lai as a British citizen, and to take a stand against the Chinese Community Party’s erosion of rule of law in Hong Kong.
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“This letter represents the strength of international feeling and commitment of parliamentarians globally to securing Jimmy Lai’s immediate release and return to the UK with his family.”
Mr Lai was famously the proprietor of the Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily in Hong Kong, which wrote scathing reports about the local authorities and the communist government in mainland China after Britain handed back the territory to Beijing in 1997.
The tabloid was a strong supporter of pro-democracy protesters who took to the streets of Hong Kong to demonstrate against the government in 2019.
But the media mogul was arrested the following year – one of the first victims of a draconian new security law imposed by the Chinese Communist Party.
His newspaper was closed after his bank accounts were frozen.
Mr Lai has since been convicted of illegal assembly and fraud. He is now on trial for sedition over articles published in Apple Daily.
World
Hong Kong jails 45 pro-democracy activists after accusing them of trying to overthrow the city’s government
Forty-five pro-democracy activists have been jailed in Hong Kong’s largest ever national security trial.
The activists sentenced with jail terms ranging from four years to ten years were accused of conspiracy to commit subversion after holding an unofficial primary election in Hong Kong in 2020.
They were arrested in 2021.
Hong Kong authorities say the defendants were trying to overthrow the territory’s government.
Democracy activist Benny Tai received the longest sentence of ten years. He became the face of the movement when thousands of protesters took to the city’s streets during the “Umbrella Movement” demonstrations.
However, Hong Kong officials accused him of being behind the plan to organise elections to select candidates.
Tai had pleaded guilty, his lawyers argued he believed his election plan was allowed under the city’s Basic Law.
Another prominent activist Joshua Wong received a sentence of more than four years.
Joshua Wong was sentenced to more than four years Pic: AP
Wong became one of the leading figures in the protests. His activism started as a 15 year old when he spearheaded a huge rally against a government plan to change the school curriculum.
Then in 2019 Hong Kong erupted in protests after the city’s government proposed a bill that would allow extradition to mainland China. It peaked in June 2019 when Amnesty International reported that up to two million people marched on the streets, paralysing parts of Hong Kong’s business district.
The extradition bill was later dropped but it had ignited a movement demanding political change and freedom to elect their own leaders in Hong Kong.
China’s central government called the protests “riots” that could not continue.
Hong Kong introduced a national security law in the aftermath of the protests.
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A woman is taken away by police outside the court Pic: Reuters
The US has called the trial “politically motivated”.
Dozens of family and friends of the accused were waiting for the verdict outside the West Kowloon Magistrates Court.
British citizen and media mogul Jimmy Lai is due to testify on Wednesday.
Meeting on the sidelines of the G20 in Brazil, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told China’s President Xi Jinping he’s concerned about the health of Lai.
He faces charges of fraud and the 2019 protests. He has also been charged with sedition and collusion with foreign forces.
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