Even after two years in Russian
prisons, Putin critic Alexei
Navalny remains
dangerously defiant, voicing opposition
to the Russian
president's invasion of Ukraine.
But the push to break Putin's
stranglehold over Russia's
Russians comes at a high cost
and certainly more costly
with each passing day.
Our Nic Robertson reports
Alexei Navalny,
Putin's poisoned and jailed Uber critic,
is in a race for survival
against his nemesis.
According to his team.
So far, Touchwood, they haven't gone.
They're going to head
with trying to kill him, locked up
in one of Russia's most dangerous jails.
His health is failing,
but not his spirit.
First of all, people
are not allowed to communicate with him.
This kind of isolation is really
purely psychological torture.
Incarceration on trumped up
charges of fraud and terrorism
are only stoking
his and his family's fire to free Russia.
Of Putin's stranglehold on
Navalny narrowly survived
poisoning by Putin's henchmen.
In August, 20, 20,
they smeared the deadly nerve agent
Novichok on his underwear
Putin smirked as he denied the attack.
Brussels But recovering in Germany,
Navalny and his team
not only discovered
the poison has worked for Putin,
but Navalny
actually got one of them to confess.
But it's tabulated
symmetrically
that you're aware
of the risks of going back.
I understand that
Putin hates me,
and I understand that
these people
who are sitting in the Kremlin,
they're ready to kill
January 17th.
20, 21.
And despite knowing the risks,
he flew back to Moscow,
was arrested on arrival
who's been in detention ever since?
Yes.
His investigative team, now in exile,
helped keep
his anti-corruption, anti-Putin
fights strong.
He passes handwritten notes in line
with type them up.
So the level of risk, risk
that he takes on
himself is very impressive.
So far,
they say
Navalny's gamble to go back to
Russia is paying off.
We are now one of the most loud
and anti war, anti war media.
But the cost is dire.
Navalny is battling for survival
from winter boots to basic medicine,
even the right
to have a hygienic cellmate.
Putin is not going to survive this war.
The question is how long it takes
and can Alexei survive?
How long it take?
We really hope that Navalny personally
and us as a political power
that we will be
in good enough shape,
in a very strong shape to act.
Navalny himself clear eyed.
If he loses the race, my message
for the, uh,
situation of the name
quilt is very simple, not give up.
Nic Robertson, CNN,
Germany today
demanded Russian authorities
provide urgent medical attention,
in their words, to dissident
Alexei Navalny
is said to be declining health
being held in one of Russia's
harshest prisons being cycled
in and out of solitary
confinement and denied medical treatment,
according to his wife and attorney.
More now
what he is going through and his refusal
to be silenced from his daughter.
Dasha, Dasha,
thank you
so much for being with us tonight.
First of all, do you know right now
what your father's condition is?
First of all, I want to say thank you
so much, Anderson, for having me.
It's a huge honor.
Thank you so much for letting
the light on the situation
that's happening.
My I know what's
what's happening.
And my biggest concern
with my dad's
situation is physical health right now.
We all know that Russian prisons
aren't well equipped
for the cold winters.
And, of course, my father got the flu.
His condition is not good.
I'll be honest.
He has a cough and a fever, and he's
expected we very exhausted.
They purposefully placed
a mentally unstable person in a cell
next to him who screams at night.
So my father isn't
an even able to get any sleep at night.
The prison officials are refusing
to treat him.
When my father requested
to be placed in prison hospital,
they said it was full of people
who might get him infected.
However, agreed to take his cellmate
into the prison
hospital,
essentially
spreading the virus to my dad.
Even before the flu,
he had some severe back problems
and he requested to have a doctor
visit many, many times for a long time.
And eventually the
doctor visited him once
prescribed him injections of
an unknown name,
and then you get a diagnosis.
We're trying to get him
all the help that we can get
and we actually have got
a lot of
Russian doctors to sign my mother's plea
and support
the plea for medical care for my dad.
But yes, my son was my primary concern
at the moment.
Obviously, I know in the past,
your father has been able
to communicate limited
I mean, via letters
or through his attorneys.
Has that become more difficult?
When were you last?
When when were you actually
that's able to communicate with them?
So the last time I saw him in person,
was a year and a half ago
for my birthday, September 20, 21.
We talked over the small phone
that's in the prisons and the whole
movie scene where we aligned our palms
against a mirror,
against the glass that separated us.
And it looked like we were holding hands.
It was very sweet,
but of course, not the same as being
really in-person.
In December,
I sent him a letter
just talking about my fall quarter and
what courses I'm taking.
And this quarter winter
and I actually just got a reply
a couple of days ago.
Yeah, it's nothing.
It's nothing super interesting.
What do you think about
I mean,
your father
went back to Russia knowing after
they after he was poisoned,
he and recovered,
he went back to Russia flying in
knowing what he was going back to
as his daughter.
I mean, he's incredibly heroic.
It's extraordinary.
As his daughter. It's.
What is that
like to know that your father
you know, put his life has repeatedly
putting his life on the line
for something larger than then him
or the family
you know, for for so many other people.
Right.
Well, I'm not going to say that.
It's it hasn't been difficult.
I really miss him.
I've always been a father's daughter.
You know, before me,
before this,
he would get arrested,
but no
longer for a couple of days or a week.
And this is definitely especially
when he was first arrested
for the first year.
It was definitely hard for me
to understand that I can just text
or call my dad whenever I wanted to.
But, you know, it's it's hard.
But someone has to do the work
that he does.
And I am proud of him for doing it.
And
it makes it makes supporting him
that much. Easier.
Tasha, thank you so much.
I wish you the best. Thank you.