Alexei Navalny's interview with Sky News
Text version
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He was a man with a deep love for his
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country and a profound belief in a
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better future for Russia.
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I'm an optimist I hope that this
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20 years of Putin is not set in stone.
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We weren't doomed to it, we weren't meant to
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go in that direction.
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The interview acquired by Sky News
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and never seen before is one of the
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last Alexei Navalny would give in full health.
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A few months later he was
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poisoned, before his three years in jail
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and then death in an Arctic labor camp.
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The interview shows Navalny for what he was:
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A young charismatic politician,
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offering an alternative to the theft and
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corruption of Putin.
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The entire Putin elite is
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absolutely corrupt and it is absolutely
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colonially minded. They have moved all their
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families, their children, their assets to
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the West and they treat our country as a
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free hunting zone and that's exactly how it works.
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Navalny and his organization fought
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with extraordinary courage against that
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alleged corruption with video exposes,
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claiming to show the lavish lifestyles of Putin and his elite
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— work he says the state did what it could to destroy.
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They try to prevent us from
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shooting our videos because the main and
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most important way to spread information
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in Russia right now is
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YouTube it will probably difficult to
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find a single person in our office who
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has not been arrested for a period of 10
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15 or 30
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days and many have criminal cases
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against them that are either suspended
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or ongoing and, in a poignant moment in the
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interview, Alexi Navalny makes it clear he
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knew the risks he was running.
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Those who try to resist, let's
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say they face the consequences quite quickly.
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But some of Navalny's strongest words
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are against the West and Britain in
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particular for letting Putin and his
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cronies allegedly get away with it.
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The West does nothing at all. I would
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say there are some ritual dances but
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nothing really happens. Why do corrupt
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officials still live in London? Because
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these corrupt officials feed a huge
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number of wonderful London lawyers. These
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people they will appear very civilized,
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we will be pleased to chat with them. If
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they sit next to us, they will be wearing
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a tie and will have fine manners and at the same time
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they are serving the interests of complete, utter bandits.
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It is a damning indictment about
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the way London and the UK has enabled
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Putin and his cronies to stash their
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dirty money abroad. Britain has imposed
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more sanctions on Russia since but
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anti-corruption investigators say still
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not enough is being done to stop what
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Navalny campaigned against.
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This isn't just about hiding money and suspicious wealth
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and getting it out of countries where
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the predicate offense of corruption has
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occurred in the first place.
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It's allowing people who are opposed to the
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rules-based international order to buy
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access reputation and influence in
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Democratic societies on an industrial scale.
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And there's controversy over the
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limited action announced by the UK in
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the wake of Navalny's death that has
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targeted only the officials in charge of his jail.
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Russians in exile like journalist Julia Mineeva,
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who knew Navalny, say he would have
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regarded the UK's latest sanctions as laughable.
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He liked humor so I feel like he would laugh at this point.
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Because of what we've seen in recent days,
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if this is everything that we're
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going to see from the UK
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as the response to Navalny's death,
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it looks quite weak and a bit pathetic.
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Despite all Putin's Russia did to him,
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Alexei Navalny remained positive to the end,
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smiling in his last court appearance,
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the day before his death.
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For him the Putin years have been an aberration.
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Russia's destiny, he believed, is a freer future.
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His death though cast that
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even deeper into doubt.
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His final thoughts in this interview
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now all the more haunting.
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Russia is a European country.
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All the people who live here
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want to live like in Europe.
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I hope that 10 years from now
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if you interview me again I'll be able
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to tell you how we managed to overcome
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the corrupt money laundering
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Dominic Waghorn, Sky News.