In Russia.
A Moscow
court expected to hold the first
hearing in a new criminal case
against the imprisoned Putin critic
and opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
These new charges stem
from an incident at the penal colony.
Yes, those still exist in Russia,
where Navalny is being detained.
Allegedly an inmate with, quote, poor
hygiene was placed in his cell,
prompting Navalny to drag
the inmate out of the cell.
Guards then physically assaulted Navalny.
Now the opposition leader
could be facing even more prison time
in addition to the 11 and a half years.
He is already facing
all this as
there are growing concerns
about his physical condition and health.
He said to be severely ill
with his health deteriorating rapidly.
Joining me
now is Navalny's
doctor, daughter, Dasha Navalny.
It's great to have you on
Thank you so much for having me.
First, I want to unfortunately
say that you're
right.
Now, what's happening
tomorrow is
what's happening
is not a court case hearing.
And that's what
the Russian propaganda
wants you to understand,
to be confused about what's happening
tomorrow is a potential
judge ruling on
whether the defendant
can become familiarized
with the court case,
which is
even ridiculous in its own place.
What's in the case is for extremism
and the justification of fascism,
which is an absurd accusation.
And
basically, the prosecution has asked
the judge to not give
the defendant, my dad,
any time to prepare for the case.
And the case has the case has 150 volumes
in each volume, which is already a lot.
And each volume
there's 250 double spaced pages.
And basically preparing,
even if they don't have it,
even if they do get time,
preparing for the process
will be impossible
because my dad's lawyers
are forced to communicate through a firm
and they can't exchange documents.
They can't really talk. They can't.
Basically they can't.
They can't see the case
that it's going against my dad,
which is very concerning.
And
of course, any defendant
in around the world, in Russia
anywhere can talk to their lawyers
in order to prepare for their hearings.
My dad can't.
Yes, let's listen.
It's a great point.
And I was going to ask you,
because we should note this,
the Russian court
system operates essentially in cases
like this as an extension of the Kremlin.
It is not.
It may purport to be a fair process,
but in fact,
it is a very much orchestrated
process here.
I wonder then,
as you
watch this play out, as you have before,
I mean, your father
sitting in a penal colony,
not to mention
survived a horrible poisoning attempt
by the Russian regime.
What is his best hope
as this, quote unquote legal process
plays out? Is it public attention
Public attention, definitely.
We have no idea.
Also, one of the huge problems with
the justice system
being an
answering to the government itself
is the fact that we don't know
when the actual court hearing
was going to happen.
We don't know whether it's
going to be open or closed.
We don't know if we're able to have
any press in the during the hearings.
And, you know, for my dad,
this is a big problem
then for any other political prisoner
in Russia.
This is going to become you know,
they're just going to be put in prison
without a court hearing
because it's closed
and because no one's there
to support them.
They don't have attorneys
they don't
they don't have the time to prepare
for their hearings.
And, of course,
international attention
is what we need the most right now.
Can I ask you what your
knowledge is at this point
of your father's health and
and what your concern is
that he might be poisoned again?
I mean, first of all,
the confinement he's going through
is a threat enough?
But are you concerned
that authorities might
take another step, try to take his life
Of course,
there's always the concern of
worsening health
or even more radical approaches
from the Russian government today.
Actually, this morning, my dad,
one of my dad's attorneys
has confirmed that according
to the new rules
that they
specifically drew up for my dad, he's
now a little
limited to the amount of food
that he can purchase in the canteen,
which is which doesn't seem like this
big of a problem.
But the food in the Russian
prison system is bad.
And my dad has had some problems
with losing weight.
And now that the situation
has gotten so ridiculous that he buys
the food, which is, you know.
It's nothing.
It's nothing
but curious in the cute bites, the oats.
The oats
are brought to him, shown to him,
and then are just destroyed.
And so he can't eat.
And it's,
you know,
something so basic is stripped away
from a human being. It's outrageous.
Which is why I'm here.
And I'm trying to advocate more
and I'm trying to bring more attention.
It's because people
don't necessarily realize how important
how the Russian government is stripping
everyone who's a political prisoner
in Russia right now
of some such basic needs as feeding food
And we should note to people
that this is deliberate.
Right, of the system,
the punishment designed to demean.
Right. It's deliberate.
I need to ask you this
because you and your mother
and your brother
are forced to watch this from afar
with limited contact with your father
as you witness him going through this.
How is your family doing?
How are you doing?
I'm doing
all right
as well as you can do in a situation
like this.
I
on-campus at Stanford studying.
You know, it's difficult
to sort of going through studying,
being an undergraduate student
and having
that happen to your father,
to your family, to your country.
And I think that
what my dad wants,
as any parent,
is for me to sit here and study
and do the most that I can do
to help the situation.
Although, you know,
being here because without an education,
I can't really help. That's the work.
That's the way the world works,
unfortunately.
And my my brothers in school,
my mom's being a supportive,
an amazing mother
and an incredible,
incredible and loving
and supportive wife.
And I am just so grateful that there is
that there is a person
that I can look up to in this entire
crisis is her.
She's my role model.
Yeah.
Well, I'm sure your mother, your father,
they want you to have this
what a father would want
for his daughter.
Listen, we would see CNN,
of course, follow
you and his case very closely.
And we're thinking about you.
And we really do wish you the best.