Putin critic Alexei Navalny learns that the documentary about him won the Academy Award

Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny was a long way from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles when a film about him won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature on Sunday night.

But he learned of the honor for the documentary “Navalny” on Monday while he was locked up in solitary confinement more than 100 miles east of Moscow, according to his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh.

She said the 46-year-old activist’s lawyer let her know he had been celebrated at one of the free world’s most prestigious events hours earlier, though there was no word on his reaction.

DirectorDaniel Roher thanked the Academy on behalf of Navalny. Citing the jailed activist, he condemned “Vladimir Putin’s unjust war of aggression in Ukraine.”

Navlany is said to be awaiting a hearing in the town of Kovrow, where he filed a complaint against prison officials. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he could not comment on “Navalny” because he had not seen the film.

The 2022 documentary details Navalny’s resistance to Putin’s tyranny, which resulted in a nine-year sentence in a maximum-security prison. He may have ended up in the 95th Annual Academy Awards In Memoriam segment if an attempt to poison him in 2020 had been successful. Russia has denied involvement in the incident, which Navalny and Western intelligence agencies blame on the Kremlin.

Russian state television largely ignored the Academy’s recognition of “Navalny”.

The wife and daughter of the political prisoner attended the award ceremony on Sunday night. Yulia Navalnaya told her husband to “stay strong” while she was in prison for “defending democracy.”

“Navalny” got the nod over “All That Breathes,” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” “Fire of Love” and “A House Made of Splinters” for win his Academy Award.

with cable news services