Taking On Putin Panorama


Taking On Putin

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The Kremlin is accused

of poisoning its

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enemies in Britain.

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But what happens to Vladimir Putin's

opponents back home?

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As Russia prepares for

a presidential election, I meet the

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people standing up to

the Kremlin.

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Is Russia a police state?

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Absolutely.

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100%.

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Close the doors.

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Close the door.

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Close the door.

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I find out what it's

like to become a target myself.

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There's no question whatsoever that

we're being followed.

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And we show how the Russian state

attacks its opponents

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and bullies its critics.

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I'm in a police station.

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It's how it goes in a democracy

like the one that Russia's got.

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I've been coming

to Russia for years.

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But this visit feels different.

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The authorities, we believe,

will be watching us.

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This Sunday, there's

a presidential election.

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Everyone knows who is going to win.

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Vladimir Putin has been

in power here for the

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last 18 years.

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In a few days' time,

he's expected to win six

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more years in power.

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No one really doubts

the outcome of the election.

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The question is - how can that be?

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Vladimir Putin is popular.

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But this is a country

where challenging

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power can get you killed.

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Three years ago, one

of President Putin's

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main rivals was gunned down

close to the Kremlin.

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It was a Saturday

and we just sort of

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exchanged a few messages.

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The last message I think

was at 11.13pm and it said

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see you tomorrow and at

11.31pm he was killed.

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Boris Nemtsov had been

planning to challenge

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Vladimir Putin in this year's

presidential election.

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The Kremlin denies any

involvement in the murder.

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Boris Nemtsov was

killed because he was

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the strongest the most

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effective, the most

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prominent, the most

formidable opponent of

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Vladimir Putin's regime.

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He would not be intimidated,

he would not make any deals with

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the regime, he would not

leave the country, he

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would not be silenced.

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This was the only way

he could be silenced.

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I have come to Moscow

to find out what

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life's really like for

the opposition here.

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Volkswagen Golf 2 behind us.

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And that means I might

become a target too.

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T914.

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They're really close behind us.

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We are going a complicated way but

Volkswagen follows us. Everywhere

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that we go. It seems someone wants

to know what we're up to.

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to know what we're up to.

It is now

reversing.

It is the same one, I

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remember. Close the door. Close the

door. The blue Volkswagen has

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followed us to the office of Human

Rights Watch. They document what

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happens to the opposition here.

Very

experience raids and invasive

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instructions. Campaigners get beaten

up. They get burgled and physically

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abused. The complaining of this is

get vandalised and private homes get

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vandalised and so on and so forth.

One man has lived with this reality

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for years.

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Alexei Navalny dares to expose

corruption amongst Vladimir Putin's

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inner circle.

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There are other candidates standing

in Sunday's election.

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in Sunday's election. But Alexei

Navalny has been banned because of a

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conviction for theft. The European

Court of Human Rights found the

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original trial was unfair. The

Kremlin says Navalny organises

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illegal rallies. This is what

happens when he holds one.

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He was later accused of assaulting a

police officer jeering this arrest.

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-- during this arrest.

He is the

most prominent, possibly the most

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charismatic opposition figure in the

country today and the Government is

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preventing him from running in the

election.

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election.

914. When we leave Human

Rights Watch, we are still being

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followed by the blue Volkswagen.

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followed by the blue Volkswagen. OK,

I'm paranoid. It's now three o'clock

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and everywhere we've been, we've

been followed by a car with a

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registration number starting TE 914.

-- T914. People who take on the

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system here are routinely spied on.

Life in Vladimir Putin's Russia can

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be far more dangerous. If you work

for the team Navalny being arrested

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goes with the job. Some activists

have suffered far worse.

I felt a

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strong blow to the head. At first I

thought something had fallen off the

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roof, I thought something was

collapsing. I turned round and see a

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man hitting me once again with what

turned out to be a metal pipe.

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Nikolai was accused of setting up

the attack on himself. He says his

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office was later raided by the

police.

It was so absurd, I got

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assaulted and was hit over the head

with a pipe. At the Moscow

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headquarters are compensated all

leaflets, all stickers and all

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merchandise with the word, Navalny.

Inside Navalny HQ, the man many say

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Plaid emit Putin fears emost has

agreed to meet me. -- Vladimir

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Putin. How you? Very well. Why are

you not running in this election?

I

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am not allowed to run. Putin banned

me from participating. He is afraid

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of me and my colleagues. We have,

just as volunteers, more than

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200,000 people. Of course he is

afraid of such a power.

Alexei

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Navalny has been repeatedly arrested

and detained.

It's kind of very

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routine situation for me. Every

single time when I am going on the

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outdoor rally they arrested me. They

took away our leaflets and our

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laptops, computers. They can take

everything.

It is completely

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illegal.

Is Russia a police state?

Absolutely. 100%.

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Absolutely. 100%.

The Kremlin would

not speak to us but it is not hard

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to find politicians here who will

give the Kremlin line.

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give the Kremlin line.

Navalny has

been attacked several times. Last

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year he spent 60 days in prison or

in jail. Russia is a police state,

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isn't it? Russia is less of a police

state than any Western country I

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know of. We have quite a liberal

legislation on protests and people

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need to not violate them. The police

deal with protests in a way which is

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according to their law.

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according to their law.

But here it

is easy to get on the wrong side of

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the security services. There is the

FSB, the new name for the KGB,

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Russia's krych police. And there is

a Police Department that is accused

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of targeting political activists. It

is called centre E.

Officially it is

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a counter extremism police force.

Absolutely. In Russia it is

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understood in a strange way. The

idea that any kind of thing that

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could be considered a threat to

political stability, that would be

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considered extremism.

What have we

got? There is a car on our tail,

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again. We are being followed, we

think. The car registration numbers

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we can pick out 369. This time we

are being tracked by a dark coloured

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Renault.

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Renault. Who do you think is

following us?

It might be centre E,

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it might be someone else. Usually it

means a message. A lot is about a

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message with the Russians.

For

people like andray, this has become

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part of life. Have you been

threatened physically?

Yes. What

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happened? Last summer I got some

e-mails with physical threats. Like

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a death threat?

Yes. They said

probably it is time to do something

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about it?

Meaning physically.

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In Putin's Russia, the line between

the security services and violent

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folks is sometimes blurred. Last

April, Alexei Navalny was almost

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blinded in one eye. -- thugs. The

police denied that centre E is being

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accused of supporting the group

blamed for the attack. They are

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called SERB and they are pro-Putin.

I want to meet them.

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I want to meet them. Hello. What I

do not know is we are being secretly

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filmed. This footage later turns up

on Russian TV.

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SERB deny the green dye attack on

Navalny but they take me to the

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place where opposition leader Boris

Nemtsov was gunned down. An

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opposition activist garners the

memorial because it has been

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vandalised in the past.

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Some people say that SERB, this

group, is controlled by centre E. Is

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that true?

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Check out these SERB activist who is

filming us. Here he is at the green

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dye attack on Navalny last April and

this is him showing what appears to

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be his police ID at another SERB

protest. He is a former police

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Major. It suggests SERB may be well

connected.

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SERB has now taken me to a memorial

near Boris

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near Boris Nemtsov's old home. They

take it apart.

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was Ben

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Aren't you desecrating a shrine?

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They dump the wreath in a toilet.

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It's clearly vandalism by SERB

and it's all caught on film.

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But the next day, we get

picked up by the police.

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It feels like we're being set up.

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We're being escorted - there's

a police officer in our van -

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to a local police station.

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The police want to question

us about the vandalism

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of the Nemtsov memorial.

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I'm in a police station

and my colleague Seamus

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and our translator have been taken

down to answer police questions.

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They've left me on my own.

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It's a slightly surreal moment.

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Here I am.

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I'm sure everything is fine

but I don't quite know.

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It's how it goes in a democracy

like the one that Russia's got.

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While we're in the nick,

pro-Kremlin media say I may be

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charged with vandalism.

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Here we go.

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After three hours,

we're finally released.

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Are we ready?

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Are we going?

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Yeah.

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Off you go.

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But when we get outside,

a TV crew is waiting to doorstep us.

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OK, so there's a story on Ren TV

that I was sort of somehow been

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charged with vandalism.

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It's a total fabrication.

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We've spent the last three

hours in here and then

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you come out straightaway,

as if you knew exactly

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what was happening.

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Are you some part

of the police state?

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Are you some part

of the police state?

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Can you answer the question?

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Er, hi.

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Are you some part of a police state?

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You're not?

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Ask a question.

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Russian.

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Only Russian.

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OK, so.

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So, very good.

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OK, so, these colleagues

here from Russian TV have come

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here to doorstep us and they've done

it so incompetently that

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they're now walking away.

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It's really quite

pathetic, but off you go.

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We've just been given

a small taste of what it's

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like for the opposition.

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They're regularly

targeted by Russian TV.

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Don't call them TV,

they are not journalists.

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It's a part of the government, part

of the state, like spies, agent etc.

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They have some peoples with cameras

who are working as a journalist.

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If you really take

on the Kremlin here,

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you've got to fight a dark triangle

- the security services, violent

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thugs and the pro-Kremlin media.

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They'll be on your case.

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And it's this dark triangle that

makes politics here so chilling.

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Is Russia a democracy?

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Oh, of course it is.

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Russia is a democracy.

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It has elected parliament,

elected president.

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And I would say it has more freedom

of expression than any country

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I would know of at this point.

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If you watch Russian television

of course you'll have a several

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miles longer spectrum of opinion

than on BBC, for example.

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So Russia is more free than Britain?

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I'm not in a business

of comparing democracies.

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But as far as freedom

of expression is concerned,

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I think Russia is more forward

than the UK.

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But speaking out against

Vladimir Putin can be dangerous.

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I've come to St Petersburg.

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Some of the worst cases of political

violence in the past few months have

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taken place in the frozen city.

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Vladimir Ivanyutenko

is a road cleaner here.

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He's famous for his protests

against Vladimir Putin.

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But last December, the man

behind the mask was nearly

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killed on his way to work.

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TRANSLATION: I saw a flash.

It was a taser.

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The second man jumped

at me and stabbed me

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with a knife, right here.

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It seems he wanted to

stab me in the heart.

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I saw that my blood was pumping

out from this wound.

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This is stab wound number one.

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And stab wound number

two is right here.

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Vladimir believes the state

was behind the attack.

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Why did this happen?

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TRANSLATION: I can only explain it

by my opposition activities.

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I consistently oppose

Putin's regime.

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I think it's kleptocratic.

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He is not a legitimate president.

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We've been trying to keep a low

profile in St Petersburg.

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But we're being followed - again.

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John, remember this number - 062.

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So we've stopped for a coffee.

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062 followed us from

there, and there it is.

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It's just gone that way

because we've turned a sneaky left,

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but we'll see it again no doubt.

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Sure enough - 062 turns up again.

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So, as predicted, 062 caught up

with us very, very quickly.

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There's no question whatsoever that

we're being followed -

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as we were in Moscow,

as we are now being

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followed in St Petersburg.

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Somebody very powerful in Russia

wants to know what we're up to.

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The Kremlin's friends in the media

have tracked us down too.

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How do you know I'm here?

0:23:130:23:15

We know that you came

from Moscow to St Petersburg.

0:23:150:23:18

Who told you?

0:23:180:23:20

We have our producers who contact...

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And who told them?

0:23:210:23:24

Look it's...

0:23:240:23:26

I mean there is a secret

of our informators, you know that.

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As before, they're from

a pro-Kremlin media company.

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But anyway, carry on,

what's your question?

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So what are you doing

here in St Petersburg?

0:23:360:23:38

It's none of your business.

0:23:380:23:40

OK.

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But what I can tell you is what I'm

doing is I'm doing my job

0:23:450:23:48

as a reporter and when we are ready

it will be broadcast on the BBC

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and you are invited to watch

the programme, as everybody else

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will watch Panorama.

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Many of the opposition

activists we meet are worried

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about being followed.

0:24:060:24:09

Two months ago, Dinar Idrisov tried

to film police handling

0:24:120:24:15

of an opposition rally.

0:24:150:24:19

But he was attacked by three men.

0:24:190:24:22

He's taking me to the place

where it happened.

0:24:230:24:26

TRANSLATION: I had a broken

cheekbone under my eye.

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I had an eye contusion.

0:24:320:24:34

I had many bruises on my face.

0:24:340:24:37

Four bones in my back

were broken and my arm,

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which I was using to protect myself.

0:24:410:24:44

Dinar believes the attackers

were from Russia's state

0:24:470:24:49

security services.

0:24:490:24:51

They were just using their fists?

No weapons?

0:24:560:24:59

They kicked you and you

were on the ground?

0:25:010:25:04

TRANSLATION: Their fighting

technique suggested

0:25:090:25:11

they were front-line police officers

or security services,

0:25:110:25:14

rather than hooligans

or political opponents

0:25:140:25:16

who would show some emotion.

0:25:160:25:18

Whereas these people

were emotionless.

0:25:180:25:26

It's clear Dinar's feeling jumpy.

0:25:310:25:34

He's worried that

we're being watched.

0:25:410:25:44

It soon becomes clear why we've been

followed and filmed.

0:26:030:26:06

One of the state TV channels runs

a special report about me.

0:26:130:26:16

As well as repeating

the vandalism claim,

0:26:250:26:27

As well as repeating

the vandalism claim,

0:26:270:26:27

As well as repeating

the vandalism claim,

0:26:270:26:29

it accuses me of making up stories

about students and Cossacks

0:26:290:26:31

I haven't even met.

0:26:310:26:32

My police statement and passport

details are leaked to the media.

0:26:420:26:48

This is how things work

in Vladimir Putin's Russia.

0:26:480:26:51

The Kremlin wants us to believe that

Sunday's presidential election

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is democracy in action.

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These elections, are

they free and fair?

0:27:190:27:22

Oh, absolutely, free

and fair election.

0:27:220:27:25

And I think the turnout

will be exceeding 70%,

0:27:250:27:27

as public opinion polls show.

0:27:270:27:35

But everyone here

knows who will win.

0:27:400:27:42

The man accused

of waging a new cold war.

0:27:420:27:44

And the winner is?

0:27:440:27:46

And the winner is going

to be the President

0:27:470:27:51

of the Russian Federation,

Vladimir Putin, there

0:27:510:27:52

is no doubt about it.

0:27:520:27:55

As for the banned presidential

hopeful, he's now challenging

0:28:010:28:05

Vladimir Putin in the only

way he can.

0:28:050:28:10

He's calling for voters

to boycott the election.

0:28:100:28:13

I'm appealing to people

and trying to persuade them,

0:28:150:28:19

this is not an election,

you cannot participate in it

0:28:190:28:21

because it's disgrace,

it's immoral, it's awful,

0:28:210:28:23

it's ugly and we cannot call this

procedure an election.

0:28:230:28:31

Vladimir Putin had

two rivals he feared.

0:28:340:28:37

One has been banned.

0:28:380:28:41

The other, shot.

0:28:430:28:46

To stand up to Vladimir Putin

is to go head to head

0:28:520:28:54

with the Russian state.

0:28:540:28:57

And what kind of democracy is that?

0:28:570:29:00

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