Latest news with #Navalny
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Navalny widow, media watchdog to launch TV channel
The widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and Reporters Without Borders will launch a television channel to "promote free speech in Russia", the press freedom advocacy group said on Friday. The channel, named Future of Russia, will be broadcast via the Svoboda Satellite project, which is available across Russia, Reporters Without Borders said. The channel will launch on Wednesday, June 4, the day Navalny would have turned 49. In March, the media watchdog, known by its French acronym RSF, launched a package of satellite news channels catering to Russia, much of it produced by Russian journalists forced to leave the country after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The Svoboda package is available to 4.5 million households in Russia and around 800,000 households in occupied Ukraine, according to Reporters Without Borders. Jim Phillipoff, project director of Svoboda Satellite, said cooperation was first proposed by Navalny's right-hand man Leonid Volkov. "Then we jointly created this concept," he told AFP. "But only recently did we receive the funding to make it possible," Phillipoff added. "Because there is no independent news in Russia it is all the more important to have alternative viewpoints," he said. He said that Russia relied on satellite for about 45 percent of television reception. "The majority of the satellite signals are provided through the French company, Eutelsat, our partner in this project," he added. The charismatic Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin's main opponent, suddenly died in an Arctic penal colony on February 16, 2024. His family and supporters say he was killed on orders from Putin. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, has vowed to continue Navalny's fight from exile. Navalny had been a thorn in the Kremlin's side for a decade by probing corruption among officials and leading large protests throughout Russia. He peppered the internet with slickly produced videos, all beginning with his laconic catchphrase "Privet, eto Navalny!" ("Hi, this is Navalny!"). "We will use much of the content that they are currently producing for their YouTube channels, Popular Politics, Navalny Live, Alexei Navalny and others," Phillipoff said, referring to the late politician's team in exile. "We are also discussing ideas for exclusive content for the channel, but we don't produce any content ourselves." After Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has outlawed all forms of public dissent and banned independent media. With all top Kremlin critics either behind bars or in exile, Navalny's legacy has been fading in Russia. as/ekf/phz
Int'l Business Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Int'l Business Times
Navalny Widow, Media Watchdog To Launch TV Channel
The widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and Reporters Without Borders will launch a television channel to "promote free speech in Russia", the press freedom advocacy group said on Friday. The channel, named Future of Russia, will be broadcast via the Svoboda Satellite project, which is available across Russia, Reporters Without Borders said. The channel will launch on Wednesday, June 4, the day Navalny would have turned 49. In March, the media watchdog, known by its French acronym RSF, launched a package of satellite news channels catering to Russia, much of it produced by Russian journalists forced to leave the country after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The Svoboda package is available to 4.5 million households in Russia and around 800,000 households in occupied Ukraine, according to Reporters Without Borders. Jim Phillipoff, project director of Svoboda Satellite, said cooperation was first proposed by Navalny's right-hand man Leonid Volkov. "Then we jointly created this concept," he told AFP. "But only recently did we receive the funding to make it possible," Phillipoff added. "Because there is no independent news in Russia it is all the more important to have alternative viewpoints," he said. He said that Russia relied on satellite for about 45 percent of television reception. "The majority of the satellite signals are provided through the French company, Eutelsat, our partner in this project," he added. The charismatic Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin's main opponent, suddenly died in an Arctic penal colony on February 16, 2024. His family and supporters say he was killed on orders from Putin. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, has vowed to continue Navalny's fight from exile. Navalny had been a thorn in the Kremlin's side for a decade by probing corruption among officials and leading large protests throughout Russia. He peppered the internet with slickly produced videos, all beginning with his laconic catchphrase "Privet, eto Navalny!" ("Hi, this is Navalny!"). "We will use much of the content that they are currently producing for their YouTube channels, Popular Politics, Navalny Live, Alexei Navalny and others," Phillipoff said, referring to the late politician's team in exile. "We are also discussing ideas for exclusive content for the channel, but we don't produce any content ourselves." After Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has outlawed all forms of public dissent and banned independent media. With all top Kremlin critics either behind bars or in exile, Navalny's legacy has been fading in Russia. Alexei Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, has vowed to continue his fight from exile AFP
France 24
2 days ago
- Politics
- France 24
Navalny widow, media watchdog to launch TV channel
The channel, named Future of Russia, will be broadcast via the Svoboda Satellite project, which is available across Russia, Reporters Without Borders said. The channel will launch on Wednesday, June 4, the day Navalny would have turned 49. In March, the media watchdog, known by its French acronym RSF, launched a package of satellite news channels catering to Russia, much of it produced by Russian journalists forced to leave the country after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The Svoboda package is available to 4.5 million households in Russia and around 800,000 households in occupied Ukraine, according to Reporters Without Borders. Jim Phillipoff, project director of Svoboda Satellite, said cooperation was first proposed by Navalny's right-hand man Leonid Volkov. "Then we jointly created this concept," he told AFP. "But only recently did we receive the funding to make it possible," Phillipoff added. "Because there is no independent news in Russia it is all the more important to have alternative viewpoints," he said. He said that Russia relied on satellite for about 45 percent of television reception. "The majority of the satellite signals are provided through the French company, Eutelsat, our partner in this project," he added. The charismatic Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin's main opponent, suddenly died in an Arctic penal colony on February 16, 2024. His family and supporters say he was killed on orders from Putin. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, has vowed to continue Navalny's fight from exile. Navalny had been a thorn in the Kremlin's side for a decade by probing corruption among officials and leading large protests throughout Russia. He peppered the internet with slickly produced videos, all beginning with his laconic catchphrase "Privet, eto Navalny!" ("Hi, this is Navalny!"). "We will use much of the content that they are currently producing for their YouTube channels, Popular Politics, Navalny Live, Alexei Navalny and others," Phillipoff said, referring to the late politician's team in exile. "We are also discussing ideas for exclusive content for the channel, but we don't produce any content ourselves." After Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has outlawed all forms of public dissent and banned independent media.
Euronews
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Russia outlaws Amnesty International amid ongoing crackdown on dissent
Russian authorities have banned Amnesty International, making involvement with the international human rights group illegal, the Russian Prosecutor General's office said on Monday. Branded an 'undesirable organisation' – a designation that criminalises involvement or support of such groups — the international NGO is the latest target of the Kremlin's crackdown on dissent. The law has been widely criticised by human rights advocates. A number of journalists, activists and others who have spoken out against the Kremlin have been imprisoned or banned from operating in the country since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The label means that Amnesty International must cease its work in Russia. Anyone cooperating with or supporting the organisation, even by sharing a report on social media, risks prosecution. Euronews contacted Amnesty International for comment. More than 200 organisations, ranging from independent news outlets to think tanks and anti-corruption groups have been slapped with the 'undesirable organisation' designation. Individuals accused of having links to banned organisations face severe repression: a Russian court last month sentenced four journalists to five-and-a-half years in prison after convicting them on extremism charges, over allegations they worked for an anti-corruption group founded by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In January, three lawyers who had previously represented Navalny were also sentenced to prison. Their charges – allegations of involvement with extremist groups – were linked to Navalny's organisations, which Russian authorities banned in 2021. In its statement, the Russian Prosecutor General's office accused Amnesty International of running 'Russophobic projects" and activities aimed at Russia's 'political and economic isolation'. It also accused it of supporting "extremist organisations and financing the activities of foreign agents'. This development also comes against the backdrop of the Kremlin's further expansion of its "foreign agent" label, a law introduced in 2012 and expanded upon in 2022. In April, President Vladimir Putin signed a bill into law that broadened the criteria for designating individuals and groups as such to include those connected to foreign government agencies and international associations that Russia is not a member of. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Amnesty International has released reports accusing Moscow of crimes against humanity and has spoken out against the Kremlin's crackdown on dissent. The international human rights organisation last week condemned a five-year prison sentence handed to Russian civil society activist Grigory Melkonyants as a 'brazen and politically motivated clampdown on peaceful activism'. It also condemned the state's crackdown on book publishers over alleged 'LGBTI propaganda' last week. 'This shameless heavy-handed use of state apparatus against literature is as absurd as it is terrifying,' said Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International's Russia director. She called for the release of the publishing professionals, the charges against them to be dropped, and 'the ongoing persecution of LGBTI people, organisations and initiatives in Russia must be brought to an end'. Amnesty International was founded in 1961, and carries out research and campaigns against human rights abuses globally. Its work centres on issues including political repression and torture, and it advocates for the release of those it considers unjustly imprisoned.
Wall Street Journal
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘Antidote' Review: Opposing Putin on PBS
Those familiar with recent films about the lives and deaths of the Putin opposition—the Oscar-winning 'Navalny'; 'Citizen K'; several 'Frontline' exposés—will also be familiar with Christo Grozev, credited in the new 'Frontline' installment 'Antidote' with developing 'a new form of journalism that takes human sources and their personal agendas out of the equation'; Mr. Grozev calls it the 'art of reconstructing a crime based on digital breadcrumbs.' While he has appeared in several of these documentaries about the regime of Vladimir Putin, 'Antidote' casts Mr. Grozev as the lead. By every indication, he'd much prefer being a supporting player. The longtime PBS series 'Frontline' usually devotes itself to disseminating events in plain-spoken, sometimes hurried fashion, the news always threatening to outrace the reportage. By contrast, 'Antidote,' directed and produced by the British documentarian James Jones ('Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes'), is far more ambitious cinematically and in the scope of its time frame, its historical resonance and its portrayal of a journalist confronting a dictator. The threats are real; deaths occur. 'Being on Putin's kill list has led to me being separated from my family,' says Mr. Grozev, who also left his longtime outlet Bellingcat for other pursuits: In one hair-raising scene, he organizes the escape of a Russian whistleblower 'determined to tell the world how the state makes deadly poisons and targets political opponents.' The escapee has to run across a farm field and dive into a car driven by a Grozev associate. James Bond it is not. It's far more nerve-racking.
