In the spring of 2022, US media giant Warner Bros., through its subsidiaries CNN Film and HBO Max, released a biopic of Russian political figure Alexei Navalny. The premise around which the film revolves is the Kremlin’s alleged assassination attempt on Alexei Navalny in 2020. The normal sequence of events is for obituaries to be published after someone has died – not while they are still breathing.
After Navalny’s unexpected death in a Russian prison on 16 February 2024, what was initially an oddly narrated documentary looks like an obituary released before Navalny’s untimely death at the age of 47.
What did the producers know about Navalny’s future when the film was shot and finally edited (and its protagonist was still alive)?
The clip below shows the first 37 seconds of one of the most macabre biopics that may have seen the light of day.
Alexei Navalny’s obituary, released two years before he died
The film won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2023, by which time Navalny still had one year more to live.
Oscar 2023 for Best Documentary
Flashpoint Moscow
Readers who by now may have started to entertain the suspicion that Alexei Navalny was murdered and that the deep state of the West had prior knowledge of this, find below a compilation made by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the exceptional speed with which official condemnations of Russia started to flood the news cycle.
The Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova:
”The way Western leaders, politicians, and media have responded to the news of Alexei Navalny’s death has once again revealed their hypocrisy, cynicism, and lack of principles. This is the ”blame Russia first” approach in action. With a prepared script ready for every situation.
Let’s look at the timeline.
Today at approximately 2:19 pm, the website operated by the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area reported the death of convict Alexey Navalny in Prison Colony No. 3.”
Literally 15 minutes later, a flurry of carbon-copy accusations poured in:
- 2:35 pm, Tobias Billström: ”Terrible news about Navalny. If the information about his death in a Russian prison is confirmed, it will be another heinous crime by Putin’s regime.”
- 2:35 pm, Barth Eide: ”I’m deeply saddened by the news of Navalny’s death. The Russian government bears a heavy burden of responsibility for this.”
- 2:41 pm, Edgars Rinkevics: ”Whatever your thoughts about Alexei Navalny as a politician, he was just brutally murdered by the Kremlin. That’s a fact, and that is something one should know about the true nature of Russia’s current regime.”
- 2:50 pm, Jan Lipavsky: ”Russia still treats foreign policy issues the same way it treats its citizens. It has turned into a violent state that kills people who dream of a beautiful, better future, such as Nemtsov and now Navalny, who was imprisoned and tortured to death.”
- 2:51 pm, Stéphane Séjourné: ”Navalny paid with his life to fight against a system of oppression. His death in a penal colony reminds us of the realities of Vladimir Putin’s regime.”
- 3:02 pm, Charles Michel: ”The EU holds the Russian regime solely responsible for this tragic death.”
- 3:10 pm Kiev regime kingpin Zelensky: ”Clearly, he was killed by Putin, like thousands of others who were tortured to death.”
- 3:16 pm (media), 4:50 pm (social media), Jens Stoltenberg: ”We need to establish all the facts, and Russia needs to answer all the questions.”
- 3:20 pm, Mark Rutte: ”Navalny’s death once again bears witness to the immense brutality of the Russian regime.”
- 3:30 pm, Maia Sandu: ”Navalny’s death in a Russian prison is a reminder of the regime’s egregious suppression of dissent.”
- 3:35 pm, Annalena Baerbock: ”Like no one else, Alexei Navalny was a symbol for a free and democratic Russia. That is precisely the reason he had to die.”
- 3:43 pm, Ursula von der Leyen: ”A grim reminder of what Putin and his regime are all about.”
- 3:49 pm, Ulf Kristersson: ”The Russian authorities, and President Putin personally, are responsible for Alexei Navalny no longer being alive.”
- 3:14 pm, Olaf Scholz: ”He has now paid for this courage with his life. This terrible news demonstrates once again how Russia has changed and what kind of regime is in power in Moscow.”
- 3:25 pm, Antony Blinken: ”Beyond that, his death in a Russian prison and the fixation and fear of one man only underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built. Russia bears responsibility for this.”
- 5:28 pm, Emmanuel Macron: ”In today’s Russia, free spirits are put in the Gulag and sentenced to death.”
”Within a short period, two hours as a matter of fact (starting at 2:19 pm), Western politicians and their subordinate media managed, it appears, to get the results of a forensic examination that has yet to take place, to investigate, to indict Moscow, and to render a verdict.
There is no explanation other than to assume these responses were prepared in advance.
Perhaps we could believe this unbelievable, seemingly miraculous swiftness had the whole world not witnessed the months-long, toothless ”investigation” into the terrorist attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, which fizzled out eventually.
What distinguishes all these statements is the glaring absence of even a suggestion of perhaps… waiting until the results of a forensic examination and investigation are available.”
From Operation Sacred to Novichok
The biopic ”Navalny” from 2022 revolves around the alleged attempt by the Kremlin, in 2020, to assassinate Alexei Navalny using the nerve agent Novichok.
Readers interested in the Russian response to the accusation can find below the documentary ”The Patient.”
According to this documentary, Western intelligence services decided in 2019 to carry out a false flag operation against the Russian Federation.
The operation was reportedly given the name ”Sacred.”
”The Patient” – Russian investigative documentary on the alleged assassination attempt on Navalny in 2020
Sources
- Telegram: Russian MFA
- IMDB: Navalny (2022)
- Youtube: Navalny (2022) full