Poking the Bear
Tuesday 16 February at 8pm
It’s a story Hollywood couldn’t make up. An epic tale of power and brinkmanship, corruption and courage.
In this battle of the titans, two men fight about the future of the world’s largest country, Russia.
One is Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and avowed democrat.
The other is the ruthless strongman – President Vladimir Putin.
In this battle of the titans, Navalny has been poisoned, almost blinded, arrested and jailed. But this isn’t stopping him.
Six months ago, Putin’s fiercest opponent lay on his death bed in a German hospital, poisoned by a nerve agent, a substance made by the Soviet military.
Down but not out, Navalny recovered and on a crazy-brave mission, returned to Russia to keep fighting.
As Navalny was arrested and hauled off to prison, his team upped the stakes, releasing a film documenting the existence of a one and a half billion dollar palace which they say belongs to Putin.
As people across Russia rise up to protest against Putin and his excesses, Navalny’s inner circle are directing operations outside the country.
“The ultimate victory from us would be Russia without Vladimir Putin…because we understand that absolutely the majority of our problems…they come from him personally”, says Maria Pevchikh, who heads up Navalny’s investigations unit.
In this exclusive report, former Russia correspondent Eric Campbell speaks to Navalny’s key advisors to find out what motivates their leader and what their next steps will be.
And we hear from the ordinary people of Moscow who are braving freezing temperatures and police to voice their opposition.
Watch Poking the Bear on Foreign Correspondent - Tuesday 16 February at 8pm on ABC TV + iview. You can catch replays on ABC NEWS channel Thursday at 12:30am, Saturdays at 9:30pm and Sundays at 6:30pm.
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Women of the revolution
Tuesday 23 February at 8pm
“If you’re scared, go home,” says 27-year-old Maria as she heads out on another freezing day to front the police and protest against Belarus’ long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko.
In the lead up to last year’s election, Lukashenko locked up the men who stood against him. The women stood in their place and won huge support in the national vote. But the dictator refused to yield, declaring he’d won by a landslide.
Protests erupted and there were mass arrests of men. Again, the women stepped up and have been protesting ever since.
The revolution’s icon is 74-year-old great-grandmother, Nina Baginskaya. Short but fierce, Nina’s confrontations with policemen almost twice her size have made her a social media star.
“She’s a really inspiring person,” says Maria about Nina. “She’s not scared of anything. She doesn’t give a flying f*** about all of the police and everything.”
Working with local crews, former Russia correspondent Eric Campbell gives us a rare insight into a country where most of the foreign media has been banned.
We meet the ‘president in exile’ Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, now living in Lithuania. She became the main opposition candidate after her activist husband was jailed.
“The government got rid of strong candidates. But they didn’t know every strong man has a strong woman who supports him.”
We visit Nina’s country house, where she sews the banned Belarusian flag, in preparation for another confrontation with the police.
“Evil cannot win, fascism cannot win,” she says.
Maria is arrested and charged and while she has no intention of stopping, she admits the police brutality is taking its toll.
“I don’t remember a day when I didn’t saw [sic] a dream with police,” she says. “I’m dreaming how they enter my apartment, how they detain me. So it’s some kind of huge national trauma.”
Lukashenko’s strategy is to belittle the women.
“Our constitution is not made for a woman,” he says. “Our society hasn’t matured to vote for a woman.”
But it’s not working, and the women just won’t stay at home.
“It’s scary to think of the future but it’s even more scary to think what will happen to us if we will stop”, says Maria.
Watch Women of the Revolution on Foreign Correspondent - Tuesday 23 February at 8pm on ABC TV + iview. You can catch replays on ABC NEWS channel Thursdays at 12:30am, Saturdays at 9:30pm and Sundays at 6:30pm.
The Great Wall of Japan
Tuesday 2 March at 8pm
When a massive tsunami engulfed the north-eastern coastline of Japan a decade ago, it wiped out everything in its path, flattening villages, killing nearly 20,000 people and triggering a nuclear meltdown.
The old seawalls which had been built along the coastline to protect villages and infrastructure offered little protection.
Today, the government’s solution to the next tsunami is to build an even bigger and longer seawall to protect Japan’s coastal communities.
Up to 14 metres high and 400 kilometres long, the new seawall is dividing communities, and some fear, placing them in greater danger.
Presented by former Japan correspondent Mark Willacy, The Great Wall of Japan ravels along the north-eastern coast of Japan’s main island to meet the fishermen and communities affected by one of the country’s biggest ever construction projects.
Oyster farmer Atsushi Fujita has mixed feelings about the wall, saying it’s destroying his community’s livelihood and culture.
“We’re all very sad that our former lifestyle has gone and we can no longer see the ocean from our windows. It’s really affecting us a lot.”
In the village of Akahama, fisherman Hiromi Kawaguchi has galvanised locals against the building of a giant wall. While he lost his wife and mother to the 2011 tsunami, he has no faith a new seawall will protect locals in the event of another great wave.
“In the last tsunami, the old wall was destroyed and its remains were left floating on the surface like cubes of tofu. Everything man-made is destined to be destroyed. It’s inevitable.”
But others support the wall, including construction executive Kazunori Yamamoto, who believes the old seawall saved his family in 2011.
“The breakwater earned us precious time, enabling a lot of people to escape. Without the breakwater, my whole family would have died.”
cientists are divided on the benefits. Some say the wall will slow a tsunami’s advance, allowing more time for people to escape. Others say it will do the opposite, providing a false sense of security, delaying departure and putting people in greater danger.
Some believe the $17 billion spent on the wall’s construction could have been better used moving more communities to higher ground.
As Japan commemorates the tsunami’s 10th anniversary, this is a moving and timely story from the region hardest hit by the 2011 disaster.
Watch Great Wall of Japan on Foreign Correspondent, Tuesday 2 March at 8pm on ABC TV + iview. You can catch replays on ABC NEWS channel Thursdays at 12:30am, Saturdays at 9:30pm and Sundays at 6:30pm.
