A film about Russian dissident Alexei Navalny won best documentary at the British BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday, amid controversy over key participant Hristo Grozev not being allowed to attend the ceremony.
Bulgarian investigative journalist Hristo Grozev, a long-time critic of the Kremlin, tweeted “Wow” after the prize was announced in London after saying he had been “banned” from attending in person.
Documentary producer Ray paid tribute to Grozev, who was unable to attend the glamorous ceremony due to a “public safety risk”.
“He gave up everything to tell this story and other stories that need to be told,” she told the audience.
Grozev – a Bulgarian who is the lead Russian investigator at investigative website Bellingcat and credited with helping uncover a plot to kill Navalny – stars in the documentary.
But on Friday he tweeted that he was “surprised to find that my whole family and I have been banned by the British police from attending the BAFTA Awards this weekend”.
London’s Metropolitan Police said only that “some journalists face the hostile intent of foreign countries while in the UK”. BAFTA said the safety of guests and staff was a priority.
At the Directors Guild of America awards in Beverly Hills on Saturday, “Navalny” director Daniel Roher told AFP that Grozev had been “removed” from the BAFTA awards.
“The Russians are trying to kill him,” Roher said. “He is no longer allowed to go to Europe. This has dramatically changed his life, it has changed his family’s life”.
Investigative journalists should not be punished when they “expose the lies, corruption and genocidal tendencies of (Russian President) Vladimir Putin’s mafia structures,” he said.
Navalny, Putin’s most prominent opponent, has been held for the past two years in a maximum-security prison outside Moscow after being convicted of embezzlement.
