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  • in court, Alexi Navalny talked about fear not his own, but that of President Putin, who he said was so scared he tried to kill him.

  • There are many good things in Russia right now, he said.

  • The very best of the people who are not afraid.

  • From a box in the foreground outside, his supporters were ushered into waiting police vans.

  • Thousands have been arrested since he returned from Germany, and still they keep on coming out to protest.

  • Okay.

  • Across this vast country, from Vladivostok in the east to ST Petersburg in the west via the Urals and Siberia, Navalny's return has precipitated an unprecedented outpouring of anger and frustration, met by brutal repression from the riot police.

  • I'll do it.

  • But what is the Kremlin so afraid off?

  • For sure, Aleksei Navalny has done some hard hitting investigations containing explosive allegations of official corruption.

  • The latest into a billion dollar palace supposedly built for President Putin has clocked up over 100 million views online, but the Kremlin still controls the TV stations, and so the national narrative.

  • Until very recently, Navalny's name was never mentioned on television.

  • He's being frozen out of the political system for more than a decade.

  • In a recent opinion poll, only 2% of Russians gave.

  • Aleksei Navalny has their preferred presidential candidate.

  • That's against 55% for Vladimir Putin.

  • Now.

  • These things are really tricky to measure because Aleksei Navalny is, in fact barred from standing in a presidential election to the questions entirely hypothetical.

  • A better measure, perhaps, of his popularity is an opinion poll taken last year, just after he was poisoned.

  • Where people were asked how they viewed his activities.

  • 20% said they viewed them positively, but 50% said they viewed him negatively.

  • The tens of thousands of people have been coming out under the frozen streets are not a manifestation of Navalny's popularity.

  • Instead, they suggest that many Russians have had enough of a system they're powerless to change.

  • If there's one iron rule of Russian democracy, it is this.

  • You can vote how you like, but the result must always be Putin.

  • Yeah, The last time there were street protests on this scale in Russia was nearly a decade ago, when then President Medvedev stood aside to let Putin back in, shutting the door on any hope of political transition.

  • That outbreak of dissent was crushed on.

  • We can expect to see even more repression this time round.

  • This was the scene tonight as people came out to protest against the court's decision.

  • Despite the beatings.

  • Despite the arrests, Navalny has succeeded in bringing people out in record numbers.

  • But a street movement alone will not bring down Vladimir Putin.

  • While the elite and the security apparatus support the status quo, any challenge can only come from within.

  • As the ruling was read out, Alexi Navalny sent a silent message to his wife inside the courtroom.

  • It's not clear what affect his jailing will have on the protests.

  • Perhaps they'll fizzle out.

  • Or perhaps his fearlessness will prove contagious.

  • Either way, Today will be remembered as a defining moment of the Putin era Gabriel Gatehouse reporting on that trial of Alexey Navalny.

  • And on the very day Russia's chief dissident was imprisoned, Russia's covert vaccine, Sputnik V, passed its drug trial with flying colors 91% effective against the disease on sold now to countries around the world, including in Europe.

  • So how should foreign powers respond to Russia?

  • It's money, It's science, its dissemination of fake news.

  • It's election meddling Let's be honest, it's power.

  • Where does the West draw the line?

  • Here's Mark Urban.

  • Has there been any meaningful reaction mark to what we've just been looking at?

  • The word meaningful is quite interesting there, Emily, perhaps doing carrying quite a lot of weight in this context because, well, actually, can you do?

  • In what seems to be an outrageous situation, quite a few of the key players took to Twitter, as is their wont these days.

  • Tony Blinken, for example, the US Secretary of State, Dominic Raab, the UK foreign secretary.

  • USAID Barral, the high representative of the EU.

  • I don't know if we can have a look at some of those.

  • They are pretty similar in their language.

  • It's a coordinated statement, if you like.

  • Between Tony Blinken and Dominic Raab.

  • Immediate and unconditional.

  • Release the keywords in both tweets.

  • Now what are they actually going to do?

  • Well, one thing you can say is that the attitude of the Biden administration is key, that they've started off on a different foot.

  • They haven't said anything that we're gonna have a reset.

  • As we saw years back when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state, they're not attempting anything like that trying to start from a tough position.

  • But where are they going to go with this?

  • Realistically, what can they do?

  • Here's one idea from Navalny's people.

  • They've sent a list of 35 people in the Russian state and security structures that people who tried to kill him on various others who they would like the West to sanction ALS, the usual stuff travel ban and all the rest of it Magnitsky type sanctions.

  • So that's what they're asking for.

  • In what sense are they most worried about damaging the relationship with Putin?

  • Is that political or financial?

  • Well, I think those requested bands on those 35 individuals from the Navalny camp are very realistically targeted because if you say, let's suspend diplomatic relations, throw out lots of people from the embassy, all those sort of things, the type of things that followed the Salisbury poisoning.

  • In fact, you're into ALS sorts of difficulty, and we know that the Biden agenda, whether it's trying to get Iran back into the nuclear deal, whether it's on climate, whether it's in regional security in the Middle East Ah, lot of these things rely on Russian cooperation.

  • It's the old problem in trying to indicate displeasure at these acts by President Putin while at the same time keeping Russia constructively engaged.

  • So that's their issue.

  • And that's how they're gonna have to calibrate what they do next.

  • Mark.

  • Thanks very much indeed.

  • Well, just before we came on air, I spoke to Robert Menendez, a senior Democrat senator, on the newly elected chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee position once held by the then Senator Joe Biden.

  • I began by asking him for his response to today's verdict.

  • Well, today's verdict make clear that the Kremlin is petrified of Alexey Navalny and petrified of his ability to expose Kremlin corruption, petrified of his ability to resonate with the nationwide following of Russian citizens On lastly, you know, to the extent that we would suggest that there's any rule of law inside of Russia, it was left to die on the floor of that courtroom today.

  • Do you think that the crowds we've seen protesting over the weekend presents a real problem for Vladimir Putin?

  • He can't arrest his way out of this.

  • That's exactly right.

  • He cannot arrest his way out of this and in numbers there is both safety and an opportunity to create change.

  • But we, uh you know, we of course, um can be supportive of the Russian people.

  • It is for them to create their own change, but we should also be very clear.

  • As I said in the letter to Secretary Blinken calling for the imposition of chemical weapons sanctions in response to the chemical weapons attack on Mr Navalny.

  • These sanctions are required under American law and and the Trump administration gladly ignored it.

  • We should impose it, and that will send a message is well, uh, that you cannot act that way with impunity.

  • So you're saying sanctions against Russia from the U.

  • S.

  • Now I'm saying certainly chemical weapons sanctions for the attacks that Russia level against individuals like Mr Navalny.

  • I say that we should be looking at sanctioning individuals that Mr Navalny has a fact identified with this anti corruption organization that are actually stealing the patrimony of Russia on we need to multilateral eyes that meaning that I hope that our European allies will join in those efforts as well to send a global message that number one Mr Navalny's have been released number two you can't do this with impunity.

  • So, as you know, London is awash with Russian money.

  • What would you say to your British counterparts tonight that they should be doing right now right here, where you cannot monetized human rights and democracy on DSO at the end of the day, if there are consequences financially because, uh, those Russian dollars have entered into financial institutions in Great Britain, we have to decide what ultimately is in the national interests and security of our respective countries.

  • Is it to allow Russia under Putin to go unbridled in its attacks against its citizens, uh, to create chemical weapons attacks on European soil?

  • Uh, is it a t end of the day?

  • The wright, uh, to go ahead and subvert our democracies, as Russia has not only tried to do in the United States, but throughout Europe and their elections.

  • Which misinformation?

  • I think there comes a time in which money should not be the standard by which we make those judgments.

  • So, in practical terms, would you say that Putin allies shouldn't be allowed to own English football teams shouldn't be allowed to sit in the House of Lords.

  • Shouldn't be allowed to buy apartments in Mayfair to launder money.

  • How far would you go?

  • That is a question that the British government will have to decide and its parliament have to.

  • But from my perspective, you know, I want our governments to stand up for democracy and the rule of law on if we are to do that universally and to do it strongly and efficiently, uh, then we have to make certain decisions as to what will be sanctioned because you're outside of the international order and what was permissible.

  • Navalny listed in a letter to Joe Biden.

  • Those 35 Russian individuals Putin allies, he called them that should face greater sanctions, including Roman Abramovich.

  • Deripaska was mon off.

  • What will you do to those names that you've received directly from Navalny today?

  • Well, of course, under our law, there is an independent, uh, investigation and analysis of the individuals, but I think he's given us a good road map.

  • Some of these names are are not unfamiliar to us.

  • What is unf Amillia is that the last four years under President Trump, there was an unwillingness.

  • Thio challenge Russia under Putin on by those who surrounds in his oligarchs and his cronies in any significant way.

  • I think that is going to change under President Biden.

  • And yet many will recognize those names of Tony Blinken, John Kerry, Jake Sullivan, members of your administration now that were also part of the administration during the Obama years, when it is quite easy to argue America lacked muscularity with Russia, you were trampled all over.

  • Well, uh, certainly I don't believe we were trumpet all over, but I would also say that there is a different president of the United States.

  • I served with President Biden on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he was his chairman.

  • I think his history is one of farm or muscularity, as you suggest.

  • A t end of the day, a t end of the day.

  • I think that you will see a different pathway forward time.

  • That's help.

  • Interesting.

  • So you think there will be a divergence in attitudes or in relationship from the one we saw under President Obama?

  • Yes.

  • And you also have Thio understand?

  • I think we all do that Russia has acted hard differently over the last several years than it has ever before.

  • Its interference in our elections it's interference, uh, in European elections, all of the actions that have taken place remember that there were at least sanctions levied against Russia when it's a next Crimea and invaded parts of Ukraine.

  • So the question is more could have been done.

  • Should have been done.

  • I was an advocate of that.

  • I just believe this administration will be far more robust in its response to Putin because I think they understand, as I understand Putin on the understanding strength since just before Ugo.

  • One other related issue.

  • The Russian covert vaccine has bean approved for use today.

  • We understand it's highly effective against the disease 91 92% In an age where it seems we trust very little that is Russian.

  • Could I ask where the you would have problems taking it, Whether you would be able to recommend this as a scientific delivery breakthrough for the countries that are buying it?

  • Absolutely.

  • If it can be independently, scientifically verified, that it is a effective on efficient and safe vaccine, I have no problem with that.

  • That is the intellect of the Russian people, not of its governor.

  • Sentiment end has really great speak to you this evening.

  • Thank you very much indeed.

in court, Alexi Navalny talked about fear not his own, but that of President Putin, who he said was so scared he tried to kill him.

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