Russian magazine editor defends Alexei Navalny cover now banned in Moscow

The editor of a Moscow weekly said he stands by the decision to devote its front page last week to the death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, even though most of the print run was confiscated. Sobesednik (Interlocutor) published a two-page spread on Navalny on Feb. 20, four days after his death, including a lengthy obituary and coverage of spontaneous vigils held in his honor across Moscow. The edition ran with a front-page photograph of a smiling Navalny with the caption: .“..but there is hope!“ It was a striking contrast with most Russian state media, which either ignored or made only brief mention of Navalny’s sudden death in an Arctic penal colony. Channel One television interrupted its broadcast briefly, but ran no major segment. Sobesednik’s editor in chief Oleg Roldugin said the paper was right to run the Navalny cover, given the opposition politician’s fame. Watch more on Independent TV: