Alexei Navalny’s wife and daughter show solidarity at New York premiere of secretly-filmed documentary looking at the Russian opposition leader’s life weeks after he was jailed for another nine years

• Yulia, 45, and Dasha, 21, posed for selfies on the red carpet at the Licoln Center
• The secretly filmed 98-minute documentary focuses on the second half of 2020
• Director Daniel Roher examines how Alexei discovered the assassination plot

Yulia Navalny and her daughter Dasha attended the New York premiere for Navalny, a film about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, on Wednesday evening. 

Yulia, 45, and Dasha, also known as Daria, 21, posed for selfies on the red carpet at the Licoln Center alongside the cast and crew of the thriller which originally premiered during the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in January.

The secretly filmed 98-minute documentary details the anti-corruption activist’s life focusing on the second half of 2020 when Alexei and his team discovered the assassination plot against him while in their Black Forest hideout.

Yulia Navalny and her daughter Dasha showed solidarity on Wednesday evening as they attended the New York premiere for Navalny, a film about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (pictured with producer Maria Pevchikh)

The leader of the opposition Progress Party, 45, fell ill after he was exposed to the same nerve agent used against former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, Wiltshire, in 2018. 

Canadian director Daniel Roher had unparalleled access to Alexei following his poisoning, a period during which Navalny and his team partnered with the investigative journalism outlet Bellingcat, as well as other international news organizations such as CNN.

Produced by CNN Films and HBO Max, Roher extensively examines how they investigated Alexei’s attempted assassination (which Vladimir Putin and the Russian government deny) and found proof of the Kremlin’s involvement.

Roher said in a statement: ‘Alexei Navalny was just last week convicted and sentenced in Russia and cannot tell the story of what happened to him. 

Yulia, 45, and Dasha, also known as Daria, 21, posed for selfies on the red carpet at the Licoln Center alongside the cast and crew of the thriller which originally premiered during the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in January

‘Our film shows his tremendous courage fighting an authoritarian regime and its corruption inside Russia. 

‘I’m looking forward to the Fathom Events engagements and speaking to CNN’s Clarissa Ward. I appreciate Warner Bros. Pictures creating these experiences for theatrical audiences.’ 

The film also features scenes between Alexei and his wife and American-accented daughter Daria, a student at Stanford University in California. 

Navalny was jailed last year when he returned to Russia after receiving medical treatment in Germany following a poison attack with a Soviet-era nerve agent during a visit to Siberia in 2020. Navalny blamed Putin for the attack.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, centre, is seen via a video link provided by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, standing next to his layers during a court session in Pokrov, Vladimir region

The Kremlin said it had seen no evidence that Navalny was poisoned and denied any Russian role if he was.

Russian authorities have cast Navalny and his supporters as subversives determined to destabilise Russia with backing from the West. 

Navalny’s opposition movement has been labelled ‘extremist’ and shut down, although his supporters continue to express their political stance, including their opposition to Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine, on social media.

After Navalny suffered the near-fatal poisoning in August 2020, the Kremlin posted a cryptic show of support wishing Navalny a ‘speedy recovery’.

The secretly filmed 98-minute documentary details the anti-corruption activist’s life focusing on the second half of 2020 when Alexei and his team discovered the assassination plot against him while in their Black Forest hideout

It comes after the State Department denounced the nine-year sentence that a Russian court handed down for the opposition leader amid a fierce Kremlin crackdown on dissent inside the country.

A Russian court convicted Navalny of fraud and contempt of court on Tuesday, as Russian authorities continued to jail and try to silence street protesters who have defied new decrees against criticizing what the Kremlin calls its ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.

‘We condemn Russian authorities’ politically-motivated conviction and sentencing of opposition leader Aleksey Navalny on additional spurious charges to nine more years in a high security prison,’ State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement released Tuesday night.

‘This outlandish prison term is a continuation of the Kremlin’s years-long assault on Navalny and on his movement for government transparency and accountability. Of course, Navalny’s true crime in the eyes of the Kremlin is his work as an anti-corruption activist and opposition politician, for which he and his associates have been branded “extremists” by Russian authorities,’ he said.

The U.S. denunciation of the sentence came as tweets posted from Navalny’s Twitter account called for action against Vladimir Putin’s ‘war criminals.’ 

The State Department blasted the ‘outlandish prison term’ a Russian court handed down for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalany

Navalny was given a nine-year sentence Tuesday. ‘Now more than ever, the people of Russia must be able to hear voices of courage and integrity that tell the truth about the Kremlin’s wrongdoing at home and abroad,’ said State spokesman Ned Price

Navalny was already serving a two and a half year sentence for parole violations. He was jailed last year after he left the country for medical treatment following his poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok. 

The State Department put Navalny’s sentencing in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which President Vladimir Putin launched Feb. 24th.

It also Navalny’s ‘near-fatal poisoning with a nerve agent in 2020 by Russia’s security services and his unjust imprisonment since January 2020,’ and Russia’s suppression of free expression. 

‘This campaign has intensified as the Kremlin seeks to hide the truth of its brutal war against Ukraine from its own people. More than 15,000 citizens of Russia have been detained for taking part in anti-war protests since February 24,’ said Price, calling for Russia to ‘unconditionally release’ Navalny. 

‘Now more than ever, the people of Russia must be able to hear voices of courage and integrity that tell the truth about the Kremlin’s wrongdoing at home and abroad.’

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov defended the sentencing of Putin’s political opponent in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amonpour. She asked him what he and the regime were ‘afraid of.’

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov defended the sentencing of Putin’s political opponent in an interview, claiming it was purely for an ‘economical crime’

President Joe Biden heads to Europe on Wednesday to meet with allied leaders to counter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

‘No. Navalny is a prisoner is a prisoner. He had his his first sentence. Now he’s got he’s got his second one. And he’s blamed and then it is proven by the prosecutor’s office, that he’s blamed for fraud. So it’s purely economical crime. He was collecting money by his foundation, from citizens, regular citizens of Russia and also from abroad,’ he said. 

‘And he was spending part of that money for his personal purposes. This is fraud in our country. And he was supposed to be punished and no one is afraid of him. It sits. If people is a criminal, he should be in prison. This is the same thing that is happening in the United States and in European countries,’ he said.

That prompted Amonpour to interject: ‘I know you say that. I know the prosecution says that. But the people who allegedly claimed that he was taking their money and using it for himself then said on the stand that they had been forced to, to make to make those testimonies.’ 

Navalny’s Twitter account said Putin is ‘afraid of the truthko

Navalny said on his Twitter account that Mr Putin is “afraid of the truth”, adding: “Fighting against censorship and bringing the truth to the people of Russia has remained our priority.

“The Kremlin smashes the media, and in response we create new ones.”

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