Minister. Watch as the evidence can you just talk tell you. A stance Prime Minister imran khan talks to al jazeera. After me ok youre watching the stream the russian activist alexina vali is known globally as an opposition politician but inside russia hes more famous is being an Investigative Reporter right now he is lying in a hospital bed in germany a medically induced coma the german doctors say they have now weighs in in his system the question that were asking listing today is russian opposition finished you too i know youre going to have a take on this jump into the comments and you can be in this. Im going to say and i think guess to guess when shes themselves to you alexis nice to have eaten everybody who knew her how i am alexis learner im a ph d. In Political Science and in a post doctoral fellow at Western University in canada i study authoritarianism and protest in russia get in the nexis and brian introduce yourself to an instants audience hi my name is Brian Macdonald im the head of the russia desk at or t. Dot com orci is russias International Broadcaster but i work on the online section only not the television so you can read all about it r. T. Dot com hey excellent sick same time bearing in mind justin says that you have access you have. What would she say happen to alexina boni was the pleasance what happened to him well i mean i can only tell you what people are saying having no medical training myself i mean the the churches that are treating him in berlin they say that hes been poisoned you know and they have as their initial analysis theyve yet to name the exact substance but theyve given the family it belongs to whereas the doctors who treated them an inside syria where he was originally hospitalized for the 1st 36 hours they said that blood test did not show such substance. Theres a long way to go here we do know that mr mcgowan election about hes likely to survive according to the german doctors. But we this is going to take weeks and months until it all comes out what actually happened the main obviously when he recovers and self he will have stuff to say will he go back to russia will he stand germany will he go to some other country who knows what i the moment thats that we know. And next season im just looking at a clip from going to share it with you at the title was took sick situation avani test negative to talk since while Mainstream Media peddles criminon info lets take a look. Now lets not forget just last year another socalled suspected poisoning took place when the volley was hospitalized for having a small in face he said he never had an allergic reaction before he suggested perhaps he was poisoned and his personal doctor said he could have been exposed to a toxic agents now in the end one of the turn out to be just an allergic reaction but it seems like the western media hasnt really learned from this story because theyre already jumping to conclusions about the kremlins allegedly role in this whole situation in the normal condition. And this young just wondering that the few from inside russia are generally very different from the view outside of russia does that much is the way that we understand the story. I think that. Is so high profile that it is unlikely for anyone to have. To have used poison on him that isnt from the administration i dont think any low level bureaucrats or or anything like that would have used poison nevertheless whats important here is that poison is used as an intimidation tactic and its not effect if intimidation tactic if it prevents others from getting involved in politics and protest politics and getting out into the streets i think that part of what makes poison more interesting perhaps or more common as a tool used by the kremlin then than just killing someone for example is that its the after kola meant i think that poison in is is specifically a slow moving thing and like my colleague said brian said it takes a long time for someone to recover and it will take a long time to recover and when he wakes up it will be in the news cycle again and so that the poisoning continues to have it the ethical element which which just expands the and the intimidation factor. What does the funny situation grown tell us about russian political and away opposing voices 15. Can i just say 1st just back on what alexis was saying a 2nd ago that i take your point about the old theatricality thing i take your point because ill see if they wanted to found the gun they could find much faster ways and easier ways to do it but i dont necessarily agree that this would have to come from the administration if youre here in russia itself. Its very hard to understand what value doing this to an extent of on the would have for the kremlin itself for i mean opportunities level i mean youre in a situation right now where you know theres trouble in delhi roosters spin protests and how barbarous can be a large city the largest city in the far east of russia and there is you know the coleman emergency for example the last thing they really needed was protests on the street of an election of on the right now and i you know i mean skeptical in that plus as you said in your introduction alex and yvonne these are the most famous investigative journalist in russia as well as being a political figure especially in moscow and you know hes got unfortunately like many a message especially in a country like russia where the media is probably not as protected as the should be hes got a lot of enemies hes got a lot of enemies and you know so i dont necessarily great this had to come from the Administration Im willing to answer the question you asked now which is just. Thank you brian raise a that would is that it wouldnt know this is all is about information is what why when he did need to be on the string to does a cat can we extract from never only being in a hospital bed in germany soon opposing voices within russia can do those things i know its. Ok hes not just like but yet coolest again its only a week ago as alexis knows because she pauses so closely answer specialist subject its only a week ago since the american and british media were claiming that the russian got just were trying to stop him from being released to germany are the kremlin is trying to stop him it was actually last friday week so i mean you know its mixed up a bit a bit because like if they were trying to you know. Hide whats going on or you know prolong the agony so to speak why did they let him go to germany so quickly i mean if they were trying to cover up for the president ial administration so because of he went once he went once he got on that german plane which by the way was less than 48 hours after he took ill it was he was under the germans i think about 40 or 41 hours after it happened they could immediately also do a blood test i mean this is the point about the politics element that of course this will intimidate people that want to go into politics but has a thing that elects where it is that there are different types of politics and russia for example theres what they call systemic and nonsystemic politics so its certainly not going to intimidate people that want to join unites that russia or the communist party were involved in the system itself what it will certainly make people possibly especially given what happened to borders themselves few years ago may people that want to join say the western leaning opposition nervous theres no doubt about. All right so im going to go to you tube alexis and you can help me out here and write east is a funny is not an opposition in russia hes a you tube clown thats referencing a lot of the what he puts out on you tube a k. That makes you smile some ternium makes me and makes a really interesting point here lets forget about politics just for now this man has a family and 2 kids imagine how they feel right now which leads me to alexis can you explain what it is that nothing does with the in russia how hes now within russia why perhaps he could be considered to be in france. Now follow me is a lawyer and a you tube activist and a anticorruption activist he got his start you cant he came to power i would say that around 2000 levon 2012 and live journal by communicating to the sort of nationalists and fire right extremists in russia about about corruption he has more recently connected with the younger demographic he came out with a very strong came at the end of sort of corruption expose in 2017 which was which i guess brought in a lot of money for his nonprofit and so he is threatening because he has access to information and he is able to disseminate information in a country that censors the Mainstream Media some of the Mainstream Media not all of it and not officially at any rate but is less able to censor it on the web and therefore hes able to disseminate information that is private information in a way that accesses potential potential demonstrators that could be mobilized so he he has a lot of power and that he is threatening. With his access to information. Brian and alexis i want to play this team this is sophia since she is the Senior Program manager for a europe and eurasia Freedom House and she told us this a little bit already have a listen. The poisoning of no by the end how the russian government handled it saf to math only confirm what everybody already knew know that its enough and is a major threat to putins regime its too soon to speculate about the consequences of this event for freedom and russia more broadly but right now the major threat is of course the smart folk in pain ahead of the multiple Regional Elections on september 13th on the vine is recovering all his projects continue their work because they rely on established for best Management Systems and volunteer networks but its clear that this brazen attempt on his life only further angers and motivates his supporters interesting ryan was during this and alexis was doing this is lets not rhymefest or go ahead not i think the contribution there from sophia was very naive to be honest you and probably i dont know shes based in russia but doesnt reflect the reality on the ground here the simple reality is that look the political system in russia what theyre trying to do in russia is what they want on the global stability and this is what theyre always talking about stability and the only played his role in a system of stability in the sense that you know the kremlin is on top of the vertical so to speak but within the opposition he was there you know as alexis said hes been around for about 10 years now and you know hes hes not not any more popular now than he was 7 or 8 years ago in fact hes maybe even less popular than he was in 2013 when he gave a very respectable show going in the moscow marilyn so it wasnt a lecture of which read or a poor check to the kremlin and if. It makes sense for the kremlin to take him out because. Removing him from the scene they actually bring instability into the system because obviously if your family does not come back to russia somebody else is going to take his place in the you know nonsystemic opposition and that person may turn out to be way more charismatic i way more popular now probably made more credible as a political figure because we look at the families political platform as it was its almost the same as putins i mean its neo liberal economics its he supported the support of research he has no intention of returning crimea to ukraine hes been involved in nationalism in the past which is kind of like what putin does if you got for example a younger guy more telegenic kind of guy than the valley for example more charismatic dour you know and this guy you know was maybe more left of center like maybe a o. C. In the states for example or Jeremy Corbyn wasnt britney thats a far more of a stretch in my book than a guy who really i mean which i endorse the sort of people in the u. K. Might be laughing at the idea of jimmy corbin being charismatic but label corner leader well because i have been energized corben energized people in the u. K. And i didnt realize it not for the energized his core support you know momentum right now right let me be frank about elections lets just play a little bit of nirvana here and this was in august 1990 come out of prison see that happening all the times when he hasnt been present in russian politics this is what he said about a year ago having this just move now we see that lies and fraud are not enough for them already its not enough for them to ban the candidates from the election they deliberately want to arrest dozens to beat up hundreds to smash repairers nations of Anticorruption Fund and it shows that there is no support to them they feel this and theyre afraid so. Next is also going to go via this tweet amicable International Says on twitter to us we told them we were doing the show is russia a one man show nation now because were asking about opposition voices is there space for people to have a different opinion alexis. What a great question thank you thank you for the person on twitter who asked that so russia is a state that uses Democratic InstitutionsElections Party used the judiciary to fulfill its or terry named names which is why we call it a hybrid authoritarian state and brian is absolutely right when he talks about the systemic and not the stomach opposition this is a demagogue position is just to give give the viewers a little more clarity this is stomach opposition is essentially either people running explicitly with a denier assia the incumbents Political Party or are people who you find they they they run for president and they have a full campaign and theyre not explicitly critical and in the end they end up voting for putin and they they say in the end support the incumbent which is in vote for themselves or you have people who are interested in single issue campaigns like pension reform for example or some kind of unemployment concern that they have so so the opposition what we call the true opposition is a very very very small percentage of the actual. Landscape of opposition politics in russia i would say 10 maybe 20 percent very very small and for those opposition leaders running in any kind of election they have all kinds of barriers to their success they are going to run into oppression for example exile or hear quite as any made in other cases jailing or killing or public beating they have cooptation when theyre bought up by the state and they no longer profess oppositional aims or they could encounter some kind of quasi legal barrier for example. Their signatures that they collect could be essentially deemed invalid or thrown out and that could prevent them from running for any kind of race then those one or 2 people that actually make it to election day they get 23 percent of the vote if that so there are substantial barriers to the opposition this is why we call it again a hybrid authoritarian state where opposition leaders can theoretically run for power but but theyre not actually going to realistically get there. I wish i had im with you guess who knows their audience and this guy and i was sent to the russian consulate in the United States when we all said they would take part in the program and this is the headline they sent us last rose says western allegations of knowing best occasion of annexing of amis incident untrue so they said the minute they heard that maybe he had been poisoned they had started a pre investigation so that is that contribution to our discussion right now let me go over to circuit a good is brings us full circle we asked at the top of the show is russian opposition finished this is what so they told us. The poisoning and exchange of money is going to have a very unfortunate i would say devastating impact on the russian opposition the russian opposition is disunite you have liberals conservatives the far left the far right libertarians you name it and they have not been able to come together and form a common platform in opposition to putins instead they devote their times to squabbling and name calling this is where nobody played such an Important Role he stood about with all he had the charisma the drive to take this project forward with him now and be incapacitated temporarily with all but who really can tell if you share of the russian opposition is going to be in jeopardy once again. Brian you go fast. So a very smart analysis place there again a red chunk and hes a very good at english text i follow on twitter so i know. You know. Sergey has a lot of good points there and i its very difficult to disagree with a lot of what he said however i would just say one thing that sergei is right about this disparate opposition that are constantly fighting amongst themselves but i think its dangerous to completely discount the systemic opposition i mean in the sense that you know while the leadership of both parties. Which is basically a fire right alter nationalist party and the communist party which does what it says in the 10 basically. You know the leadership of those parties this is you know easily placated and ready to rock the boat although it is worth noting the communist very very mentally opposed the recent constitution referendum that couldnt go true but i do local level certainly around the country as we just saw in a bar a squid sort of gave sort of go. That they can quite often be a real opposition these parties certainly at the local them around the country im in the provinces and i see what you say you know what like what alexis just said about the real opposition or what what what people abroad call the real opposition you got to be careful with that you cant actually completely discount this is that mccartys i mean in the sense that you know in the future stage under different leadership they might become totally different entities and the fact is that they already own the Party Bashing on network on a scale that they could maybe manage some kind of Power Transition at the future that ever happens. And it is going. I agree with that i think that you cant discount all systemic opposition candidates i think some of them have actual platforms like i said some of them are single issue candidates and they do have some benefit. To cooperating with the incumbent in getting their issue on some kind of. Some kind of agenda however generally theyre not theyre not the same as your democratic revolution sort of opposition and it should say you asked a question i think d