Vladimir Putin’s most famous and powerful political opponent, Alexei Navalny, hit out at unnamed “corrupt officials” living in London in a never-before-seen interview.
Mr Navalny looks healthy and determined in an interview recorded four years ago as part of an unaired documentary series, After The Fall, directed by Matthew Torne and produced by Andrew Duncan.
The video was filmed in February 2020, a few months before the Russian politician was poisoned while on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow.
In the interview, acquired by Sky News, Mr Navalny shared his hopes for the future of Russia and hit out at the West for its lack of actions against Putin and his associates.
He claimed: “The West does nothing at all, I would say. There are some ritual dances, but nothing really happens. Why do corrupt officials still live in London? Because these corrupt officials feed a huge number of wonderful London lawyers.
“These people, they will appear very civilised, we will be pleased to chat with them if they sit next to us, they will be wearing a tie and fine manners, and at the same time they are serving the interests of utter, complete bandits.”
The British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) paid tribute to Mr Navalny for his fight to expose Russian corruption, adding: “The UK has sanctioned 2,000 individuals, companies and groups under our Russia sanctions regime alone, while directly targeting Putin-linked elites in the UK through the National Crime Agency’s Combatting Kleptocracy Cell. Corruption and kleptocracy will never be welcome on our shores.”
This office has been sanctioning several individuals and companies over the past few years, in a bid to cripple the Russian economy financing the invasion of Ukraine.
Last week, as the world was preparing to mark the second grim anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, UK Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron announced 50 new sanctions targeting individuals and businesses sustaining Putin’s unprovoked war in the eastern European nation.
Mr Navalny’s interview came to light more than a week after Mr Navalny died in a penal colony in the Russian Arctic Circle.
Mr Navalny was serving a long sentence for charges he and his allies have often described as spurious and politically motivated.
Mr Navalny’s body was returned to his grieving mother Lyudmila eight days after his death.
The Russian politician’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh alleged Mr Navalny’s mother had to sign a death certificate claiming her son had died of natural causes, after which she had been given only three hours to decide whether to hold a “secret” funeral for him or leave her son’s remains at the penal colony.
But Mr Navalny’s mother reportedly refused to negotiate with the authorities. Funeral plans for the Russian politician are still not clear.
