Navalny's wife, son and daughter collect Oscar for documentary about the ... trends now

The family of a Russian opposition leader jailed for speaking out against Vladimir Putin took to the Oscars stage in Hollywood last night as a documentary about their husband and father brought home an Academy Award.

Yulia Navalnaya - the wife of incarcerated dissident Alexey Navalny - along with their daughter Daria Navalnaya, 22, and son Zahar Navalny, 14, joined the crew behind the film 'Navalny' as it won the Oscar for best documentary.

Onstage, Yulia decried Moscow for its military invasion of Ukraine and its alleged assassination attempt of Navalny in 2020, around which the film is centred.

Dasha, meanwhile, said it was difficult to be attending the Oscars to bring attention to the documentary about her father's imprisonment, but he wanted her there.

The family's glamorous appearance was a far cry from Alexey Navalny's current situation. The opposition leader was on a remote link from jail to a court hearing when he found out that the documentary about him had won an Oscar.

The judge had refused to allow his lawyer to speak to his client, so attorney Alexander Fedulov wrote 'Oscar' on a piece of paper. Navalny could not see it and asked the lawyer to speak. 'I can't see it, tell me,' he said.

Fedulov defied the judge and said: 'Oscar! You won an Oscar yesterday.'

A smiling but gaunt-looking Navalny said: 'Ahh. Fine. Well, it's not really me, though. Thank you.'

The film is on the bid by the Russian authorities to poison Navalny on a flight in Russia in 2020. He was evacuated to Germany, but since his 2021 return to Russia, his team have accused the authorities of seeking to kill him by harsh treatment in jail.

Taking the stage moments after the film picked up the award, Yulia Navalnaya said she's 'dreaming of the day' that both Russia - and her husband - 'will be free.'

'My husband is in prison just for telling the truth,' she said Sunday, dressed in red.

The 46-year-old so-called First Lady' of the Russian opposition proceeded to use the glitzy venue as a platform to shine a light on her husband's current situation.

'My husband is in prison just for defending democracy,' she said, before addressing her husband directly. 'Alexey, I am dreaming the day when you will be free and our country will be free. Stay strong, my love. Thank you.'

Daria Navalnaya, wearing a bright green gown, later told reporters on the red carpet: 'I'm fighting for freedom of speech and trying to get Alexei out, my dad, and fighting for democracy in Russia.'

Canadian director Daniel Roher told reporters: 'We're having a good time but we're not losing sight of the fact that we made a film about the world's foremost political prisoner and we have a very strong message to say. 

'That's freedom to Alexei Navalny and being here on this carpet, speaking to folks like you is a perfect platform we need to talk about our movie and to talk about Alexei,' he added.

Roher's film looks at the political rise of Navalny, the most prominent opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, his poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok during a trip to Siberia in 2020 and the subsequent probe. 

'There's one person who couldn't be with us here tonight - Alexei Navalny, the leader of the Russian opposition, who remains in solitary confinement for what he calls - I want to make sure we get his words exactly right - Vladimir Putin's unjust war of aggression in Ukraine,' Roher told the audience as he accepted the golden statuette.

The 46-year-old Navalny, who has been held for the past two years at a maximum-security prison outside Moscow after an embezzlement conviction, has accused Putin of being behind the poisoning attack.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters he had not seen the film but speculated there could be a

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