Yulia Navalnaya, Wife Of Imprisoned Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny, To Attend Oscars
13.03.2023 - 00:33
/ deadline.com
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary that bears his name, remains imprisoned outside Moscow, and thus unable to attend the Academy Awards tonight. But he will be represented at the ceremony by his closest family members.
Deadline has learned his wife Yulia Navalnaya, who also occupies a prominent place in the film directed by Daniel Roher, will attend the Oscars along with the couple’s children, daughter Dasha and son Zahar. Navalny, from CNN Films, is considered one of the favorites to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
Roher’s film documents how Navalny emerged as a serious rival to Vladimir Putin, attracting significant support from the Russia public for his campaign against Kremlin corruption and open criticism of Putin. In August 2020 Navalny made a campaign tour of Siberia in support of allies of his political movement and on the flight back to Moscow became deathly ill. Russian doctors claimed he suffered from a “metabolic disorder” or other illness, but doctors in Germany – where Navalny was later treated – determined he had been poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok.
Navalny, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, shows how journalist Christo Grosev, working closely with Navalny and his associates, was able to trace the poisoning plot back to Kremlin apparatchiks. In one pivotal scene in the film, Navalny himself got on the phone with one of the alleged poisoners and – by impersonating a government official – got the man to reveal incriminating details of the plot.
Russia recently added the Bulgarian-born Grosev to a “most wanted” list, meaning he is subject to arrest if he steps foot in the country.
Navalny reportedly was transferred within