#navalny (2022)

[sesiondemadrugada]

Navalny (Daniel Roher, 2022).

[porquevi]

"Navalny" (idem) - hbo max.

Documentário que concorre ao Oscar sobre Alexei Navalny, político russo que desafiou Putin e acabou envenenado. O caso internacional ficou bastante conhecido e fiquei interessado em saber mais detalhes da história toda. A Rússia partiu pra guerra contra a Ucrânia e o mundo está assustado. Jogar uma luz nesse país sombrio é importante.

depois de ver: parece um filme de espionagem, mas é real. a parte final é surpreendente, quando descobrimos a maneira que usaram pra envenenar. vale ver.

[quotesfrommyreading]

Most of the time, when heads of state talk about nuclear war, they speak in careful, measured tones, acknowledging the gravity of the nuclear taboo and the consequences of breaking it. The Russian president takes a different approach. Speaking at his annual foreign-policy conference a few years ago, Vladimir Putin reflected, without smiling, on the consequences of a nuclear war. “We will go to heaven as martyrs,” he said, “and they will just drop dead.”

At the same conference last month, a regime insider, Fyodor Lukyanov, asked him about this remark: “You said that we would all go to heaven, but we’re in no hurry to get there, right?” Putin did not answer. The seconds ticked by. Lukyanov said, “You’ve stopped to think. That’s disconcerting.” Putin responded, “I did it on purpose to make you worry a little.”

I did it on purpose to make you worry a little? Why does he want anyone to worry? Because fear is not just a feeling or an ephemeral emotion; it is a physical sensation. It can grip your stomach, freeze your limbs, make your heart beat faster. Fear can distort the way you think and act. Because it can be so paralyzing, human beings have always tried to make other human beings feel fear. If you can make your enemies afraid, they will not oppose you, because they cannot oppose you. You can then win the argument, the battle, or the war without ever having to fight.

Putin is a KGB officer who knows about the manipulation of emotions, fear most of all. For two decades, he has sought to evoke fear inside Russia. Unlike his Soviet predecessors, he doesn’t shoot or arrest millions of people. Instead, he uses targeted violence, specially designed to create fear. When the investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down in her Moscow stairwell, and when the businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sent to prison for a decade, other journalists and other businessmen got the message. When the opposition politicians Boris Nemtsov and Alexei Navalny were murdered and poisoned, respectively, those incidents sent a message too. This isn’t mass terror, but it is just as effective. Fear keeps Putin in power by rendering people too frightened to report news, protest government actions, or conduct independent business or even independent activity of any kind.

Putin also seeks to create fear in the outside world, especially the democratic world. He does this, above all, by bantering about nuclear weapons, at conferences and everywhere else. Indeed, this has been a central subject of his public commentary, and of Russian propaganda more broadly, for many years. Pictures of mushroom clouds appear regularly on the evening news. Threats of nuclear strikes against Ukraine have been made repeatedly, as far back as 2014. Russia’s armed forces practice nuclear strikes as a routine part of military exercises. Back in 2009, they played out a war game that included dropping a nuclear bomb on Poland. This constant, repetitive nuclear signaling, which long predates the current war, has a purpose: to make NATO countries afraid to defend Poland, afraid to defend Ukraine, and afraid to provoke or anger Russia in any way at all.

  —  Fear of Nuclear War Has Warped the West’s Ukraine Strategy

[cinesludge]

Movie #33 of 2023: Navalny

The prank call scene is legendary.

[rookie-critic]

Rookie-Critic's Top 25 Films of 2022: #22: Navalny (dir. Daniel Roher)

The sole documentary on this year's list, even when accounting for the Honorable Mentions, Navalny really punches you off your feet. Arresting you in a story that, if you didn't care about it before, you will once you get about 30 minutes into the film. Alexei Navalny is the Russian opposition leader, and the man who has the best chance of beating Vladimir Putin. He has such a good chance, in fact, that Putin saw fit to have someone poison him. The film follows Navalny and his team as they try to uncover the truth behind his assassination attempt, and one sequence involving a phone call that had me in complete disbelief. This is a dive down into the depths of what men in power will do when their power is threatened, and it is as fascinating as it is horrifying. Currently streaming on HBO Max.

Read my wrap-up review of Navalny here.

[sweetsmellosuccess]

On the subject of year-end lists, such as this one, we seem to have gone into a vortex of responses to responses, an ungainly ouroboros of online discussion (my goodness could Twitter, the very definition of tempest-in-a-teacup, somehow be involved?) and argument/counter argument endgames.

On the one hand, we have the beleaguered critics imposed by their publications to produce such compendiums (though, to be clear, not in my case as the stately Philip Martin allows his writers a great deal of artistic clearance), on the other, the wags and wages of the online space (as well as some of the creative artists behind the films themselves) who question the efficacy of such lists, and the necessity of breaking everything down by such quantitative analytics. It's art, after all, and therefore utterly subjective. What's the point of anything, for the love of God?

It's a viable position, but I think a lot of it comes down to the point of the proclamation. Is the list in question stating, unequivocally, the best films of the year? If so, the arguments can rain down like hailstones upon the head of the writer. If, however, the list is a compendium of the best films that particular critic saw in the year of our lord, 2022, that can't really be fought against (it could be ignored, of course, but that's a different problem). Hence, please note the title of this particular compilation.

[popsixsquishcicerolipschitz]

[mariacallous]

Ukrainian musician Andriy Khlyvnyuk on Nov. 18 declined to accept the Magnitsky Human Rights Award due to the statements of his co-recipient, Yulia Navalnaya, regarding Western military aid to Ukraine.

Khlyvnyuk, lead singer of the Ukrainian music group BoomBox, joined Ukraine's Territorial Defense Force after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 and now serves in the National Police.

In a Facebook post published Nov. 18, Khlyvnyuk thanked the jurors of the Magnitsky Award, which honors journalists, activists, and politicians working to advance human rights.

"I sincerely thank all the founders and jury of the influential international Magnitsky Award in London," he said.

"You have noticed and noted my contribution to the race for freedom of speech and fundamental human rights, as part of the struggle for the independence of the Ukrainian state, which is insignificant compared to other people and foundations."

Khlyvnyuk then explained that despite his gratitude, he could not accept the award, which was also offered to Russian opposition figure Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late dissident Alexei Navalny.

"(A)s the father of two children living under missile strikes and a private in the defense forces of Ukraine ... I cannot receive this award together with other laureates who are 'not sure' of the need to provide my country with Western weapons, vitally necessary to repel Russian aggression," Khlyvnyuk said.

Navalnaya said in an interview with the German outlet Zeit that she was not sure whether or not it was correct to supply arms to Ukraine.

"It's difficult to say," she said.

"The war was unleashed by Vladimir Putin, but the bombs are hitting Russians too."

Following her husband's death in a Russian penal colony, Navalnaya has become a more visible leader in the Russian opposition movement. She received a 2024 Magnitsky Award under the category "Courage Under Fire."

Khlyvnyuk's statement comes a day after Russia on Nov. 17 unleashed one of its largest aerial attacks against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war. The combined missile and drone attack targeted the country's energy grid and left multiple civilians dead or injured.

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week. #6

Feb 16-23 2024

The EPA announced 5.8 billion dollars in funding upgrade America's water systems. 2.6 billion will go to wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, while the remaining $3.2 billion will go to drinking water infrastructure. $1 billion will go toward the first major effort to remove PFASs, forever chemicals, from American drinking water. The Administration all reiterated its plans to remove all lead pipes from America's drinking water systems, its spent 6 billion on lead pipe replacement so far.

The Department of Education announced the cancellation of $1.2 billion in student loan debt reliving 153,000 borrowers. This is the first debt cancellation through the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan, which erases federal student loan balances for those who originally borrowed $12,000 or less and have been making payments for at least 10 years. Since the Biden Administration's more wide ranging student loan cancellation plan was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2023 the Administration has used a patchwork of different plans and authorities to cancel $138 billion in student debt and relieve nearly 4 million borrowers, so far.

First Lady Jill Biden announced $100 million in federal funding for women’s health research. This is part of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research the First Lady launched last year. The First Lady outlined ways women get worse treatment outcomes because common health problems like heart attacks and cancer are often less understood in female patients.

The Biden Administration announced 500 new sanctions against Russian targets in response to the murder of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. The sanctions will target people involved in Navalny's imprisonment as well as sanctions evaders. President Biden met with Navalny's widow Yulia and their daughter Dasha in San Francisco

The White House and Department of Agriculture announced $700 Million in new investments to benefit people in rural America. The projects will help up to a million people living in 45 states, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands. It includes $51.7 million to expand access to high-speed internet, and $644.2 million to help 158 rural cooperatives and utilities provide clean drinking water and sanitary wastewater systems for 578,000 people in rural areas.

The Department of Commerce signed a deal to provide $1.5 billion in upgrades and expand chip factories in New York and Vermont to boost American semiconductor manufacturing. This is the biggest investment so far under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act

the Department of Transportation announced $1.25 billion in  funding for local projects that improve roadway safety. This is part of the administration's Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program launched in 2022. So far SS4A has spent 1.7 billion dollars in 1,000 communities impacting 70% of America's population.

The EPA announced $19 million to help New Jersey buy electric school buses. Together with New Jersey's own $45 million dollar investment the state hopes to replace all its diesel buses over the next three years. The Biden Administration's investment will help electrify 5 school districts in the state. This is part of the The Clean School Bus Program which so far has replaced 2,366 buses at 372 school districts since it was enacted in 2022.

Bonus: NASA in partnership with Intuitive Machines landed a space craft, named Odysseus, on the moon, representing the first time in 50 years America has gone to the moon. NASA is preparing for astronauts to return to the moon by the end of the decade as part of the Artemis program. All under the leadership of NASA Administrator, former Democratic Senator and astronaut Bill Nelson.

[maaarine]

Navalny (Daniel Roher, 2022)

[un-ionizetheradlab]

Russia just freed SIXTEEN political prisoners in a prisoner swap with the West!

Among the released political prisoners are:

Oleg Orlov, a longtime dissident and the co-chair of Memorial, an organization created in 1989 to chronicle the USSR's human rights abuses and educate Russians about the history of political repression;

Sasha Skochilenko, an LGBTQ artist who was imprisoned in April 2022 for replacing price tags at grocery stores with data about Russian destruction in Ukraine, deemed treasonous under Russia's "fake news" law;

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a political dissident who was fundamental in bringing about the Magnitsky Act to sanction Russian human rights abusers, and who was poisoned twice by the KGB in attempted assassinations before being sentenced to 25 years in prison for "treason";

Evan Gershkovich, a young American journalist who was arrested in Russia while reporting for the Wall Streeet Journal in March 2023 and sentenced to 16 years in prison for "espionage";

Paul Whelan, American former Marine who was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years of hard labor for "espionage";

Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for spreading "fake news" about the war in Ukraine;

Andrei Pivovarov, an opposition activist who headed the pro-democracy organization Open Russia before being imprisoned in a Siberian penal colony infamous for its torture of prisoners;

Ilya Yashin, a young opposition politician who was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for publishing YouTube videos about the war in Ukraine; when Russian authorities "encouraged" him to leave the country, he chose instead to stay;

Lilia Chanysheva, opposition activist and regional coordinator of Navalny HQ; in her final speech before the Russian court, she tried in vain to appeal to the judge's sense of empathy: "If you put me in jail for 12 years, I will be too old to bear a child. Give me a chance to be a mother!";

Kevin Lik, a dual German-Russian citizen who was arrested as a minor for "photographing military sites" shortly before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine; he was the youngest person ever to be convicted of treason in Russia;

Rico Krieger, a German man sentenced to death in Belarus for supposedly planting explosives on a railroad track to help the Ukrainian army;

Dieter Voronin, a dual German-Russian citizen and political scientist who was arrested in 2021 in connection to a treason case involving Russian journalist Ivan Safronov;

Patrick Schobel, a German man arrested in February 2024 at the Pulkovo International Airport in St Petersburg when customs officers found cannabis gummies in his luggage, in a scenario very similar to that of Brittney Griner;

German Moyzhes, a dual German-Russian citizen and lawyer who was charged with treason for helping Russians obtain European residency permits;

Vadim Ostanin, opposition activist and Navalny associate arrested in 2021 for his work with Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation;

Ksenia Fadeyeva, dissident and Navalny associate sentenced to 9 years in prison.

[justacynicalromantic]

Only these kind of people from Russia can be called "good Russians" without sarcasm.

Listen to what he says.

Most Russians, even liberal ones, even those you see rallying for Navalny, would skin this guy for the things he says - like not agreeing with the occupation of Crimea in 2014, or Russia choosing the fascist road, or that both nations - Ukraine and Russia - will win in this ONLY if the war ends on Ukraine's terms.

PS: a surgeon from Moscow disagreed with Russian occupation of parts of Ukraine in 2014, and in 2022, when Russia started a full scale war, he left to live in Estonia and now comes to Kyiv frequently to do surgeries for Ukrainian soldiers wounded in battles.

[asgoodeasgold]

🔊🔊 Alexei Navalny's memoir 'Patriot' is out today! The audiobook is read by Matthew Goode.

Listen ⬆️ to an extract from Chapter 1 where Alexei describes falling ill on a plane after having been poisoned by a nerve agent.

I have listened to Chapter 1 and this promises to be a riveting, emotional read. Matthew's beautiful, rich voice is perfect to narrate this important, passionate book.

It's available from various platforms - more information on Penguin's website ➡️

📷 My edit from Audible audiobook version (Penguin Books). MG photograph by Dana Maxwell for LA Times (2022).

[saddayfordemocracy]

Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny (4 June 1976 – 16 February 2024)

Mr Navalny was a Russian opposition leader, lawyer, anti-corruption activist, and political prisoner.

He organised anti-government demonstrations and ran for office to advocate reforms against corruption in Russia and against Dictator Vladimir Putin and his government.

Mr Navalny was founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). He was recognised by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, and was awarded the Sakharov Prize for his work on human rights.

Through his social media channels, Mr Navalny and his team published material about corruption in Russia, organised political demonstrations and promoted his campaigns. In a 2011 radio interview, he described Russia's ruling party, United Russia, as a "party of crooks and thieves", which became a popular epithet.

Mr Navalny and the FBK have published investigations detailing alleged corruption by high-ranking Russian officials and their associates. He twice received a suspended sentence for embezzlement, in 2013 and 2014. Both criminal cases were widely considered politically motivated and intended to bar him from running in future elections. He ran in the 2013 Moscow mayoral election and came in second with 27% of the vote but was barred from running in the 2018 presidential election.

In August 2020, Mr Navalny was hospitalised in serious condition after being poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. He was medically evacuated to Berlin and discharged a month later. He accused Putin of being responsible for his poisoning, and an investigation implicated agents from the Federal Security Service.

In January 2021, Mr Navalny returned to Russia and was immediately detained on accusations of violating parole conditions while he was hospitalised in Germany. Following his arrest, mass protests were held across Russia. In February 2021, his suspended sentence was replaced with a prison sentence of over 2+1⁄2 years' detention, and his organisations were later designated as extremist and liquidated.

In March 2022, Mr Navalny was sentenced to an additional nine years in prison after being found guilty of embezzlement and contempt of court in a new trial described as a sham by Amnesty International; his appeal was rejected and in June, he was transferred to a high-security prison.

In August 2023, Mr Navalny was sentenced to an additional 19 years in prison on extremism charges.

In December 2023, Navalny went missing from prison for almost three weeks. He re-emerged in an Arctic Circle corrective colony in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

On 16 February 2024, the Russian prison service reported that Mr Navalny had died at the age of 47. His death sparked protests, both in Russia and in various other countries. Accusations against the Russian authorities in connection with his death have been made by many Western governments and international organisations.

Rest in Power !

Lyudmila Navalnaya, the mother of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, attends a funeral service and a farewell ceremony for her son at the Soothe My Sorrows church in Moscow, Russia, March 1.

People attach a banner to a tree near the Borisovskoye cemetery after the funeral of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, in Moscow, Russia, March 1. A slogan on the banner refers to Russian President Vladimir Putin and reads: "Putin killed him but didn't break (his spirit)"

People walk towards the Borisovskoye cemetery during the funeral of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny in Moscow, Russia, March 1, 2024. A placard reads: "We remember, we love, we won't forget". 

People walk towards Soothe My Sorrows church in Moscow, Russia and Borisovskoye cemetery during the funeral of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny in Moscow, Russia, March 1.

Courtesy: REUTERS/Stringer

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The space for dissent against Putin has been steadily contracting in Russia since he invaded Ukraine. This marks another sharp change. Why did Putin choose to kill Navalny now? That's easily answered. After Trump spoke in South Carolina denouncing NATO and stating preemptively he would not defend a NATO country from a Russian invasion, indeed inviting the invasion, and Johnson blockaded assistance to Ukraine, Putin decided he had all the cover he needed to do whatever he wanted. And Navalny's death was high on the list of things he wanted. Anyone who thinks Trump's remarks and Johnson's conduct have no consequences is simply deluding himself.

Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s death Friday at a Russian prison camp in the Arctic silenced a man who was arguably the most influential remaining critic of President Vladimir Putin and the authoritarian state the former spy has methodically built on the wreckage of the Soviet Union. Putin, who has effectively run Russia for 24 years and is seeking to extend his time in office for another six years in elections set for next month, now strides the Russian political stage with almost no visible challengers. Many of those who have opposed him have ended up in prison, or dead.

Since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has introduced laws to punish critics of its military campaign, muzzled independent media, branded pro-peace authors and artists as “foreign agents” and denied Russians the ability to publicly express opinions about the war. Authorities have unleashed a wave of repression to ensure compliance. Many ordinary citizens have been swept up in a crackdown and handed fines and lengthy jail times for what authorities view as discrediting the army or spreading misinformation about Russia’s stalled military campaign. A 72-year-old woman who questioned Russia’s conduct in the war in Ukraine online was sentenced recently to 5½ years in jail.

[WSJ]

[rookie-critic]

Rookie-Critic's Film Review Weekend Wrap-Up - Week of 2/20-2/26/2023

-Navalny (2022, dir. Daniel Roher) An incredible documentary covering the assassination attempt on Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the subsequent investigation done into the Russian state's involvement in it. This was a fantastic and very real look into just how far the Russian government is willing to go to make sure that people currently holding the power stay right where they are, which is probably something we all already knew, but now there is undeniable proof of it. Score: 10/10 Currently streaming on HBO Max.

-Magic Mike (2012, dir. Steven Soderbergh) I was really expecting this one to be way more fun than it was, which was a huge bummer. A lot of the acting was fantastic, from Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer specifically, but I thought Cody Horn, who plays Tatum's main love interest in the film, was incredibly wooden. Where the film really gets a lot of points is that this does look and feel like a Soderbergh film, which really makes for a visually intriguing experience. The scenes where the strip-dances happen are fun and it was interesting to see the objectification of the male body for a change, but all of the film's actual drama and plot fell pretty flat. For a movie about male strippers, it just seemed to take itself too seriously. Score: 6/10 Currently streaming on HBO Max.

-Magic Mike XXL (2015, dir. Gregory Jacobs) This was everything the first one should have been; just an absolute blast from beginning to end. The side characters from the first film (Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, Kevin Nash, Adam Rodriguez) get to take center stage, and they add an infinite amount of charm that was severely missing from MM1. Their camaraderie is so endearing, and cameos from the likes of Donald Glover, Michael Strahan, Andie MacDowell, Elizabeth Banks, and Stephen "tWitch" Boss (R.I.P.) are all welcome and so much fun. The only unnecessary part of the whole film was the Zoe character played by Amber Heard. It was a just a way to shove a new lover interest into the film and it wasn't needed in the slightest. The scene in which Manganiello's character performs a strip-dance, high on molly, to the tune of the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" in a convenience store to try and get the clerk to smile while the other guys, also stoned out of their minds on molly, cheer him on from outside was worth the entire runtime of the film alone. Score: 8/10 Currently streaming on HBO Max.

-Linoleum (2023, dir. Colin West) This is the first truly phenomenal film of the year. Jim Gaffigan, Rhea Seehorn, Katelyn Nacon, and Gabriel Rush all deliver near perfect performances in this Gondry/Kaufman-esque comedy/drama. I wasn't really sure what to expect going into this one, and it managed to blow my socks off in the best possible way, with a beautiful ending and many wonderful messages and moments throughout. I could consider this a 2022 film, as it premiered at SXSW almost a year ago, and I'm pretty sure it would make my Top 10, but as it didn't see a non-festival limited theatrical release until almost three months into the new year, I'm going to go ahead and consider it for 2023. The bar has been set, and it has been set high. Score: 10/10 Only in theaters on a limited release. Check your local listings to see if there any showtimes near you. FULL REVIEW FOR THIS ONE COMING SOMETIME TOMORROW.

-Old School (2003, dir. Todd Phillips) Before The Hangover, Todd Phillips delivered unto the world Old School, a film which has mostly been remembered for Will Ferrel's ass accompanied with the line "We're going streaking!" Which, to be honest, isn't even kind of the funniest thing in the film and it happens less than 30 minutes in. As is the case with most Todd Phillips films, as well as most comedies in general from the early aughts, there are large aspects of it that have not aged well at all. However, a good chunk of the film is still incredibly funny and reminiscent of the humor that would later make The Hangover such a beloved classic. I admit I had a lot of fun watching this one, and while it wouldn't ever be my first choice for a comedy film recommendation, it is one worth checking out should you be interested in watching it. Score: 7/10 Currently available for rent/purchase on digital (iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, etc.) and on DVD & Blu-ray through Paramount Pictures.