"Navalny" wins Oscar

“Navalny,” a documentary on the poisoning and detention of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, won the Oscar for best feature documentary on March 12.

The documentary "The House Made of Splinters," which told of children living in Lysychansk, Luhansk Oblast, in 2019 amid Russian aggression, was nominated for the same category but did not win, according to Kyiv Independent.

On stage at the event, Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, said: “My husband is in prison just for telling the truth. My husband is in prison just for defending democracy. Alexei, I am dreaming of the day when you will be free and our country will be free.”

Directed by Daniel Roher and presented by CNN Films and HBO Max, the documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2022.

According to Variety, President Volodymyr Zelensky's request to give a virtual speech at the Oscars was rejected. 

Navalny was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok in August 2020, a move which is confirmed to have been executed by Moscow. After his recovery, he returned to Moscow, where he is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence.

On Feb. 20, Navalny’s team issued a statement calling for the restoration of Ukraine’s 1991 borders and the payment of reparations by Moscow.

The restoration of Ukraine’s borders, as defined in 1991, would include the return of Crimea to Ukraine, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Navalny’s statement contradicts his previous position regarding Crimea. In 2014, he falsely claimed that the peninsula is “de-facto" Russian. 

Navalny's current statement, comprised of 15 points, also called for the payment of reparations by Russia to Ukraine for its full-scale war. 

He noted that “Russia is suffering a military defeat” in Ukraine, adding that the “lives of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers have been senselessly ruined.”