Navalny is “terribly happy” with the Oscar

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Wednesday he was “terribly happy” that a film about his poisoning and political activism won the Oscar for best documentary feature.

In a series of tweets on his account on Wednesday, the politician praised director Daniel Roher and others who took part in the filming of “Navalny”, as well as his wife Yulia and their allies at the Anti-Corruption Foundation.

“Of course I’m terribly happy, but as I celebrate I try not to forget that it wasn’t me who won the Oscar after all,” Navalny said.

The document chronicles Navalny’s career and his fight against official corruption, the poisoning with a nerve substance which nearly caused his death in 2020 and which he attributes to the Kremlin, his five months of convalescence in Germany and his return to Moscow. in 2021 when they stopped. him immediately. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and last year was sentenced to another nine years on other charges.

Navalny faces relentless pressure from the authorities. He spent several weeks isolated in a tiny “punishment” cell and last month was moved to a restricted unit for six months. He cannot receive phone calls or visits from his family and apparently only occasionally receives letters and visits from his lawyers.

In tweets, Navalny confirmed on Wednesday that he heard about the Oscar while attending a hearing via video link from prison. He said his lawyer tried to break the news to him by holding up a piece of paper in front of a camera, but Navalny couldn’t see what was written. Then the lawyer said it out loud, “Your movie won an Oscar.”

“I had a very strange feeling at that time,” the politician said. “It felt like those words didn’t belong in this world, but then again, everything here is so weird and crazy that it seems like the only world they belong in.”