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Updated February 20th, 2023 at 12:19 IST

UK's Prince William backs jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny at BAFTA awards ceremony

UK's Prince Williams at the BAFTA awards ceremony on Sunday spoke about his desire to help Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny who is currently in a Russian prison.

Reported by: Digital Desk
Prince William
Image: AP | Image:self
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During the Sunday BAFTA Awards ceremony in London, United Kingdom's Prince William expressed a desire to help Alexei Navalny, a well-known Kremlin critic, after meeting with the filmmakers of the award-winning documentary 'Navalny'. The creatives behind the film dedicated their BAFTA award to investigative journalist Christo Grozev, who spoke about Navalny's 2020 poisoning in the documentary.

However, before the ceremony, Grozev, who is based in Bulgaria, claimed that he and his family were barred from attending the event due to being a 'security risk'. 

At the BAFTA Awards show, UK's Daily Mail quoted producer Odessa Rae as saying, "We want to dedicate this award to Christo Grozev, our Bulgarian nerd with a laptop, who could not be with us tonight because his life is under threat by the Russian government and Vladimir Putin." Rae added, "I met Christo in the summer of 2020. His life is fairly private then and he gave up everything to tell the story and many other stories that need to be told."

Grozev subsequently tweeted, 'Wow.'

Christo Grozev, who is the lead Russia investigator with the investigative journalism group Bellingcat, specialises in fact-checking and the use of open-source intelligence and social media investigation techniques. On Friday, Grozev tweeted that he was surprised to be banned from the BAFTA Awards ceremony, and was told he represented a public security risk. He saw this as a sign of "growing dangers to independent journalists around the world, not only from murderous dictators, but also from attempts to silence their voices".

In the 'Navalny' documentary, Grozev explains how he and fellow investigative journalist Maria Pevchikh revealed the details of the poisoning plot that implicated Russia.

The Metropolitan Police (Met) said police forces generally "do not and cannot ban individuals from events and this was the responsibility of organisers," reported Daily Mail. It added, "However, the situation that journalists face around the world and the fact that some journalists face the hostile intentions of foreign states whilst in the UK is a reality that we are absolutely concerned with".

"We are committed to working with our intelligence partners to investigate these threats and to take other steps to ensure the safety of those concerned," Met stated. 

The Met added, "Despite our efforts, on protective security and on investigations, we recognise the impact of those threats on those affected. The responsibility for such threats and their potential impact on the wider public lies with the hostile state actors behind them and we have significantly increased the resources applied to bearing down on those."

"We recognise that our advice can mean organisers have difficult choices to make when deciding how best to mitigate any risks to the security of their event, and we are grateful for the ongoing engagement of Bafta," said the Met.

Before the ceremony, BAFTA said, "The safety of all our guests and staff at the ceremony is always our highest priority, and we have robust and appropriate security arrangements in place every year." Tory MP and chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Alicia Kearns also tweeted earlier, "I've raised with ministers - you are not the security risk."

Speaking in the BAFTA winner's room, Russian investigative journalist Maria Pevchikh called on the Kremlin to free Navalny and all political prisoners. She said, "The message to the Kremlin is that they have to free Navalny and all political prisoners immediately and stop the war immediately as well."

"And before Navalny went to prison I promised him that I would spend the time while he's in prison climbing on the highest chair, the highest mountain and shouting and screaming his name and making sure that people don't forget about what he has done for my country," she added. 

"And I think that tonight's stage has been a mountain pretty high I'd say to say his name from the stage. It's a great honour and a great privilege and let's all remember that while we're having this great evening tonight, that many people are sadly spending these days in prison, just because one corrupt KGB man decided to overtake a great country," expressed Pevchikh.

Where is Alexei Navalny?

In 2020, Alexei Navalny survived a Novichok poisoning, which he claims was an assassination attempt by the Kremlin. The poisoning left him unable to comply with his previous sentence, as he was unable to report to the police. The Kremlin, as expected, has denied any involvement in the attempt on Navalny's life.

Currently, Navalny is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence for allegedly violating his parole conditions, which were imposed on him following a 2014 conviction for embezzlement. Navalny maintains that the 2014 case was fabricated by the government to silence him.

In March 2022, 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. 

International bodies and countries have condemned the handling of Navalny and have demanded his release but the Russian Federation has stayed silent on the issue.

The Wall Street Journal has described Navalny as “the man Vladimir Putin fears the most” as it has been observed that Russian President Putin has never directly referred to Navalny by name. 

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Published February 20th, 2023 at 12:19 IST

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