amy: from new york, this is democracy now!. >> what we see is the tino people and people of color do the work that keeps the state going. they get very little of the resource, very little pay and insurance and access to care. this pandemic is exposing these inequities. amy: as the number of latinx

patients dying daily from covid-19 in los angeles has shot up by over 1000% since november, we will speak to uclprofesso dr. david hayes-baptista on the pandemic's devastating toll on communities of color and the major racial disparities in who is receiving vaccinations. then we go to moscow where another 200 protesters have been arrested today outside a court hearing for jailed russian opposition figure alexei navalny. >> i want to say one more time, you won't succeed in frightening us. we are the majority. you won't frighten millions of people who were robbed by those in power. they face hardships. amy: over the weekend, 5000

protesters were pro--- arrested across moscow. we will speak with joshua yaffa of the new yorker about the protests in russia as well as russia's sputnik covid vaccine. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the united states recorded nearly 2,000 deaths from covid-19 on monday, with 140,000 new infections reported. on monday, a massive winter storm dropped up to 30 inches of snow across parts of the northeast, delaying vaccinations for thousands of people. in new york, new jersey, massachusetts, 26 million people have received at least one dose

of the vaccine, the covid-19 vaccine, less than 8% of the population. this comes as stat news reports top trump officials actively lobbied congress to deny state governments any extra funding for the covid-19 vaccine rollout last fall, despite frantic warnings from state officials who said they were woefully underprepared for mass vaccinations. in the southwestern u.s., the navajo nation has lifted a weekend curfew in order to speed covid-19 vaccinations. about 20 -- about 20% of people across the reservation have been vaccinated so far after the navajo suffered the country's highest per capita coronavirus infection rate through parts of 2020. president joe biden is signing three executive orders on immigration today. the first establishes a task force that will aim to reunite hundreds of asylum seeking families separated by the trump

administration. the two other orders will look into trump's disruption of the asylum process, restore funding to central american countries aimed at combating the root causes of why people flee, and review trump's controversial remain in mexico program and other trump-era policies that made it harder for immigrants to get permanent residency if they used public aid such as food stamps. this comes as immigration immigration advocates are condemning the deportation of hundreds of asylum seekers within the first few days of bidens presidency after a , federal judge temporarily blocked biden's 100-day moratorium on many removals. a u.s. deportation flight departed to haiti yesterday on -- on monday, the first day of black history month. the guardian reports nearly two dozen african asylum seekers are scheduled for deportation as early as today. a group of 10 republican

senators met at the white house with president biden and vice president kamala harris monday, pushing a $618 billion dollar coronavirus relief package that's far smaller than biden's proposed $1.9 trillion bill. after the meeting white house , press secretary jen psaki said president biden was pushing ahead with more ambitious legislation. >> his view is the size of the package needs to be commensurate with the crisis we are facing. that's why he proposed a package that is $1.9 trillion. the president believes the risk is not going to small but going not big enough. amy: senate democrats are pressing ahead with plans to pass the package using a budget process known as reconciliation which would bypass the , filibuster by requiring only a simple majority. in international news, south africa received its first batch of coronavirus vaccines on

monday. the one million astrazeneca-oxford shots will be used for healthcare workers as they respond to an orwhelming rge lied to a variant that is believed to be more infectious, and potentially more resistant to current vaccines. in brazil, hospitals in the amazonian city manaus report continued shortages of oxygen amid a second, massive surge in covid-19 cases. in october medical researchers found about three quarters of manaus's population had already been infected; many of the new infections are from a coronavirus variant known as p1 that appears to have evolved, maki it moreikely to reinfect people. a se of the p1 variant was recely reported in the united states for t first time, in minnesota. in hubei, china, a team of world health organization experts are continuing their investigation into the origins of covid-19, with visits to local disease

control centers on monday. on -- monday. on sunday, they went to the wuhan seafood market where the virus was first detected. around 2 million people in western australia abruptly went into a five-day full lockdown sunday, after one coronavirus case was identified in a hotel worker in perth. back in the united states, congressmember alexandria ocasio-cortez has opened up about being a sexual assault survivor, and traumatic memories that resurfaced on january 6 when a violent mob incited by president trump attacked the u.s. capitol. in a powerful instagram live video broadcast monday, ocasio-cortez said she hid in the bathroom of her capitol hill office fearing for her life as a , man barged in repeatedly shouting, "where is she?" the man turned out to be a capitol police officer who had

not identified himself. ocasio-cortez says she and a staffer were unsure whether the officer was there to help them or hurt them. she says she ultimately ended up barricaded in the office of california congressmember katie porter with furniture pushed up against the doors. ocasio-cortez said she decided to share her story after republican colleagues asked her to forget about the insurrection and move on. >> the reason i say this and the reason i'm getting emotional is because the people who tell us to move on, that it's not a big deal, that we should forget what happened or tell us to apologize, these are the same tactics of abusers. i'm a survivor of sexual assault. i haven't told many people that in my life.

amy: president trump has assembled a new legal team to mount his defense at next week's senate impeachment trial, after five members of his previous team quit. trump has hired bruce castor, a former district attorney from pennsylvania who in 2005 decided not to prosecute bill cosby after comedian andrea constand accused him of drugging and sexually assaulting her. cosby went on to be convicted of that crime in 2018. another lawyer hired by trump, david schoen, previously represented trump ally roger stone, as well as russian and italian mafia bosses. he met with jeffrey epstein a few days before he died in jail. house democrats introduced a resolution monday to remove georgia republican marjorie taylor greene from her committee assignments over her history of

violent threats and racist, anti-muslim and anti-semitic comments. on monday, senate republican leader mitch mcconnell did not mention greene directly by name, t referred to her quote "loony and conspirator theories" describing them as a cancer for the republican party. mcconnell told the hill, quote "somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the clintons crashed jfk jr.'s airplane is not living in reality." in el salvador, two activists were killed sunday and five others wounded after gunmen opened fire on a group of supporters of the leftist political party fmln in the capital san salvador. gloria rohel del seed and juan de dioz tehada were members of fmln and survivors of the

u.s.-backed war in el salvador. the group had been campaigning all day as el salvador prepares to hold local and legislative elections at the end of the month. fmln lawmakers and salvadoran advocates blamed conservative president nayib bukele for instigating political violence after bukele insinuated the fmln had planned the attack against its own people. in a statement the committee in solidarity with the people of el salvador wrote quote "it is heartbreaking and terrifying to see a return to this type of overt political violence in el salvador, which had largely ended after the peace accords were signed in 1992, but it's not necessarily a surprise. social movements and international solidarity organizations have been warning that behind the president's discourse of hate is a machiavellian strategy to legitimize violent state repression and the consolidation of power." the united nations is calling for the restoration of democracy

in burma, after the military seiz power jt hours before a new parliament was set to convene on monday. president joe biden said the u.s. might reimpose sanctions against burma, calling the coup "a direct assault on the country's transition to democracy and the rule of law." in turkey, massive student protests continued in istanbul monday following the arrest of four university students over artwork that depicted the lgbtq rainbow flag alongside the image of a sacred islamic site. over 150 protesters were arrested. mobilizations have been ongoing for over a month after president tayyip erdogan appointed one of his allies to head a major university in istanbul. the turkish interior minister referred to the four arrested students as "lgbt freaks", while erdogan accused the lgbtq movement of "vandalism." seven men who were formerly incarcerated at guantanamo are

urging president biden to shut down the military prison. the men were released during the bush and obama presidencies. in an open letter published last week, the men write quote "many of us were abducted from our homes, in front of our families, and sold for bounties to the us -- u.s. by nations that cared little for the rule of law. some of us had children who were born in our absence and grew up without fathers. others experienced the pain of learning that our close relatives died back home waiting in vain for news of our return. waiting in vain for justice. that is what you must contend with and change." the pentagon has suspended plans for coronavirus vaccines to the 40 remaining at guantanamo. they were originally scheduled to receive them this week.

the biden administration plans to release $1.3 billion in delayed aid for puerto rico's recovery efforts after 2017's hurricane maria. the aid is also meant to help protect the island against future climate disasters. the federal government will also remove trump-era restrictions on an additional $4.9 billion in aid to puerto rico. the funds are part of a $20 billion package that congress gave to the department of housing and urban development to help puerto rico after hurricane maria. the new york times reports less than 1% of the money has been disbursed. a warning to our viewers the , following story contains disturbing footage of police violence. in rochester, new york, one police officer has been suspended and two officers placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation, after body camera video showed them handcuffing and pepper-spraying a 9-year-old girl. the video, taken last friday,

shows the officers pressing the girl face down into the snow as she cries out for her father. one officer says "you're acting like a child," to which she responds, "i am a child." when when the girl refuses to sit in the back of a patrol car, an officer pepper-sprays her. rochester police union president mike mezzo on sunday defended the officer's actions. >> he made a decision that he felt was the best. it results in her, no injury for her. amy: rochester mayor lovely warren said monday that state law and a police union contract prevented her from taking stronger action against the officers. she said the incident had left her community rattled. >> i have a 10-year-old

daughter. she's a baby. i can tell you that this video as a mother is not anything you want to see. amy: last year, mayor warren fired rochester's police chief la'ron singletary after internal documents showed he sought to cover up the police killing of daniel prude. prude was a 41-year-old black man who died from asphyxiation in march after rochester officers handcuffed him, put a over his head and pushed his , face into the freezing cold ground for two minutes while kneeling on his back. he was naked. and in oregon, a voter-approved ballot measure went into effect monday, making it the first state to decriminalize low-level drug possession of all drugs. oregon will use the savings from reduced prison time to fund crime prevention and addiction treatment programs. drug policy alliance director kassandra frederique wrote, quote, "today, the first domino

of our cruel and inhumane war on drugs has fallensetting off what -- fallen, fallensetting off what we expect to be a cascade of other efforts centering health over criminalization." those are some the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the coven teen report. the number of latino deaths in los angeles has gone up by 1000 percent. we will talk about the toll on communities of color. stay with us. ♪

♪ amy: this is democracynow, democracynow.org, the quarantine

report. juan gonzalez joins us from news or see -- new jersey. january marked the deadliest month yet of the coronavirus outbreak in the united states, black and latinx people in the united states continued to die from the virus at higher rates. now, new data shows they are getting vaccinated at much lower rates than white people. the centers for disease control and prevention reports more than 60% of those vaccinated so far worldwide, while just 11.5% were latin the, 6% were asian, and just over 5% were black. this comes as many black and latinx people face a disproportionate risk of exposure to covid in their jobs as essential workers, and are more likely to have pre-existing conditions. the cdc data was gathered during the first month of the us

vaccination campaign, and race and ethnicity are only known for about half of the nearly 13 million recipients. at a press conference monday, the head of the biden administration's health equity task force said more data is needed. this is dr. marcella nunez-smith. >> we cannot ensure equitable vaccination the cdc will be releasing additional data. i worried about it. amy: here in new york city, just 11% of vaccination so far went to black people, who represent 24% of the population, and 15% to the latinx population, make up 29% of the city's population.

even in predominantly latinx neighborhoods where vaccination sites reported high numbers of white pele from tside the community getting the shot. mayor bill de blasio said sunday the disparities are unacceptable. >> what we see is a particularly pronounced reality, many more people from white communities getting vaccinations than people from black and latino communities. amy: across the country in los angeles, the number of latinx patients dying daily from covid-19 has shot up by over 1000% since november. latinx people are now succumbing to the disease at a rate over 1.5 times that of all los angeles residence. and that is where we go now to speak with dr. david hayes-bautista, distinguished professor of medicine and director of the center for the study of latino health and culture at the david geffen school of medicine at ucla. thank you so much for joining us.

1000% increase in deaths of the latin population in los angeles. can you explain what's happening? we are seeing 150 years of medical neglect against other committees. in california, all populations of color have higher death rates. that tells us about where the resources are, particular for latinos as essential workers who ha kept the state going. the fact that they have worked during the ear days of the pandemic, we did not consider them essential workers. we did not provide protection. they don't have health insurance. it was able to eat its way through them very quickly. your average latino household has more wage earners per household than non-hispanic whites.

more adults leave the house every morning. they cannot do their jobs from their living rooms. they do not have those kinds of jobs. you cannot pick peaches in your living room. they are more exposed to coronavirus and more likely to bring that into the house. they have twice as many children and they are often asymptomatic. these are the conditions the coronavirus loves. it's not because they are latino, it's because they are in those occupational and living arrangement spaces that coronavirus loves, a lot of people. there it goes. we have seen this for nine months. juan: that could be understood in terms of the exposure. now we're dealing with the issue of the vaccinations in terms of preventing future exposure. it's astounding that these inequities continue, not just in california and new york. tes is 40% latino.

they only represent 9% of the people being vaccinated so far, even though the lower rio grande valley is the worst place in terms of infections in the country. how do you explain the disparities in the vaccination process? >> these didn't appear nine months ago. they have been built in, decision by decision politically, wre to place medical resources. those chickens have come home to roost. latinos and other populations of color are paying the price for this distribution. they have limited access in any case. it's making a bad situation worse. the vaccination rate is low in california. the very populations that have helped keep the state together,

kept them fed. when people were fighting the grocery stores for toilet paper, imagine if you were fighting over the last bag of potatoes. thanks to farmworkers, we never got there. we have neglected them for over a century and a half. juan: the terms of the recent explosion in deaths, you did a paper that tallied the high death rates among latinos between may and november. since november, it has exploded 1000%. what is happening there? >> that was in los angeles. we've got 15 million latinos -- 50 million latinos -- 15 million latinos in california. in those small areas, it exploded. between october 27 and january

27th, the state mortality rate for latinos has doubled. it started in october higher than white. it is still higher than white. compared to white, the death rate is huge. i'm not sure yet that we have peaked. i am on the board of a hospital, 99% of the patients are latino. we have had increases in admissions in the last four days. amy: if you could talk about the issue of language and the issue of the directions being given to people, we have two different situations. when people get sick and when people learn about vaccines and are not afraid they will be picked up by ice if they are

vaccinated. i want to go to an interview with an interpreter and cofounder of the group indigenous communities in leadership. this is what she said. >> you hear the privilege of others when essential workers are not getting vaccinated. it's very heartbreaking. it's personally very frustrating. i wouldn't have the words to tell you my feeling of anger at times. i see indigenous communities at the forefront, from the agricultural fields to the hospitality industry to t culinary. we are there. we don't have access to the vaccine. people are being infected. the lack of knowledge is there.

there is a worldview. someone in the community died. she knew the stories of migration. she was one of the first people who came to the u.s. and brought other women. all of those stories are gone. the language is dined with covid more than ever, especially herein los angeles. amy: and places like standing rock reservation. native american leaders of prioritized the language keepers to be vaccinated first, those who speak dakota. this goes to a number of questions. let -- what languages are people be instructed to go if they have the vaccine? essential workers being prioritized when it comes to vaccines, not just getting the

vaccine, but the fact that they are on the front lines, whether we're talking about farmers in the fields or people who work in grery stores, people who keep the society alive every day. they are being protected and reached out to proactively as opposed to them it figured out where they can go? >> absolutely. the bulk of the information is provided in englh. medical services have been provided in spanish in california for 251 years. this is not something that suddenly happen. the spanish spoken in california has been highly indigenous. the spanish -- it included aztec and comanche as part of the larger spoken language. the indigenous from mexico and central arica are not considered indians. they are simply immigrants.

they are not eligible for services. they are left out with nothing underneath them except their own communities. we lack interpretation in spanish. also in vietnamese and philippine it languages. th are increasingly forming the backbone of farm working in california. r society a institutions ven'lened how communate withhe ones o feed the juan: amonderi, in terms of the dissemination of the vaccine it, what your thoughts are on the best way to move forward in an equitable fashion. clearly, there been attempts by some local governments to put everything through existing hospital systems. there have been attempts to open up arenas or stadiums in a

general shotgun approach. is there a more directed approach into particular industries and jobs or by zip code? what is the best way to assure greater equity of vaccinations? >> we rely on the existing institutions, we are in trouble. th have not adequate served minority communities in this state for 150 years. there are alternative organizations, community based clinics r example in california. we have community organizations. we need to deal withhe effects of the trump administration. last sunday at dodger stadium, a group of trump supporters disrupted and caused closure of that effort for over one hour as they tried to persuade people

not to become vaccinated. they were told not to bring trump flags. we have very cfusi msages. we have confusing priorities. the state ha shifted to the elderly. essential workers are largely a minority. it's a very confusing lack of a plan. the ones paying the price of the onesho have or 150ears and have kept the state functioning. amy: i wanted to talk about new york. the department of health, nine top leaders of the health department have quit amidst the rift of what the governor is doing it, laying out the rollout. bill de blasio the mayor held a news conference admitting the terrible figures on who is getting access to the vaccine.

11.5% of the latinx, 60% were white. 6% were asian. just over 5% were black, even as vaccination sites are put into communities of color. white people are going to those sites and getting vaccinated. the new york times has a major editorial about this disparity and what has to happen. the city newspaper did an interesting piece talking about the new york presbyterian hospital in the washington heights complex. a latino woman encountered one language barrier after another, no one spoke spanish. the reporter was asked to do the translating. she said we don't have access to internet, we try to make our

online reservations. when we get here, no one can help us. what about that issue of online or rollouts and who gets access to that? >> we've done a study, a couple of studies on telemedicine. how these function. it turns out most of the telemedicine efforts that we have, out of the school of medicine, assumes you have one screen sitting on a desktop with broadband access. a lot of latino families don't live in that situation. they use whatsapp. our systems don't funnel into whatsapp. we have built up our system on the conception that everyone haimson like beverly hills and has access to those nderful services. most of the population does not. we did not even think about that.

farmworkers did not receive ppe. many still don't from their employer or the state. it followed the decision about who gets into the medical schools. it has not been primarily students of color. now we are reaping the results of those decisions to reduce medicine to just serving certain communities ignoring the others. juan: dr., what about the situation, that segment of the latino population that is undocumented, in terms of access to the vaccine. we are told it is supposed to be free. what is the actual situation? >> the message is confusing. this it free? is it not? do you go to a county facility? will you get a bill? will you have considered using

public facilities? the messages are very confusing. for a lot of people given that it's already difficult to find a physician who speaks your language and the idea of this being a public charge, i could understand why people are confused. in the best of cases, they think it's do nothing, how can it get worse. it is a community disease, but it kills like a chronic disease. amy: can you talk about the protest at dodger stadium over the weekend, that -- it was shut down temporarily by people who are against vaccines and also the far-right. the significance of this, what messages is the community getting about the safety of these vaccines? >> i was not there.

i am relying on other reports. this also included the mask free california coalition. apparently, they went to the beverly center, which is an upscale shopping center in beverly hills. they entered stores without masks, it was not aimed only at latinos. there is a strong element of resistance to doing any public health. they see it as an infringement on their freedom. you havevery freedom to kill yourself, you don't have the freedom to kill me. it's being stimulated by the remnants of the trump administration. we have a very confusing situation. people are waiting in cars to get vaccinated. some got frustrated and left the line. because we do not have a strong

planner from the federal government for nine months, we had administration that said it was a hoax and it would go away. it was left to the states. any states leave things up to the counties. it is horribly confusing. one message is you can never become a citizen, even though you fe us during the pandemic. amy: is there fear of ice picking them up? >> there was a story earlier this year out of denver about a covid positive person who was undocumented and admitted to the hospital. ice kicked him out. they have been sending known positive refugees back to the countries of origin, ceding the pandemic. amy: i want to thank you for joining us, the distinguished

professor of medicine at the david geffen school of medicine at ucla in los angeles. this is democracy now. big news is breaking around the sputnik v russian vaccine, that it's 92% effective. we will speak to a reporter and talk about a massive protest the took place, over 5000 people were arrested. stay with us. ♪

♪ ♪ amy: ridge by the russian art collective pussy riot. they were arrested for protesting. that piece was just relieved. i am amy goodman with juan gonzalez. in major vaccine news, a report is out today revealing russia's

coronavirus vaccine has been deemed to be safe and effecti, results from a trial with 20,000 volunteers found the two dose vaccine has a 92% efficacy against symptomatic covid-19. a number of countries have started or plan to use the vaccine, including argentina, iran, as well as palestinian territories. we go to moscow where we are joined by the new yorker magazine. he has just written an article. it's great to have you with us. this is just breaking now, 92% efficacy. you wrote about the rollout and how this was developed. respond to the latest news and tell us about sputnik v. >> the latest news, the peer

reviewed medical review in the u.k. published and confirmed the data that came out of russia that it is 91% effective in presenting -- preveing covid-19 during a phase three trial with 20,000 participants. that is good news for developers of the vaccine. that is good news for russia written large. they have plenty of geopolitical ambitions around the vaccine. russia is hoping the vaccine can be a rare soft power when for the -- win for the country. it's goodews for e world, for tho countries that are relying on it for a vaccine considering how difficult and

complicated is to access the other vaccines. we heard about the problems in america. they only get harder when you get outside america and get into some of the middle income countries around the world that are struggling to get any vaccine. the fact that sputnik v will be added to the worldwide arsenal in the fight against covid, that is good news for a lot of countries looking to get vaccinated with whatever they can get access to. juan: could you talk about the role played by the director of the russian direct investment fund and helping develop the vaccine? who is he? >> he is the chief lobbyist and financial backethrough his role at the direct investment fund. he is not a scientific figure.

piggybacked a scientific project that was launched, it was a 100-year-old scientific institute in moscow. he is an ambitious political player. he has experience in politics and high finance. he has been involved in many stories over the years. for example, he was met with eric trump -- erik prince just after the election to establish a back channel of communication between russia and the trump administration. his role in terms of developing or fine-tuning the science, he is the geopolitics. he is the internal politics, navigating it the complicated world of russian bureaucracy and political infighting and being the person who presents and tries to sell the vaccine on the

world market. he is a salesman whose job might've gotten easier by the results announced today. he has very little to do with the science of the vaccine. he has very much to do with the vaccine's role as a geopolitical instrument. juan: you have written that sputnik v is a vector vaccine. can you explain what that means and explain how it compares to the others that have already been approved? >> the vaccines been used now in the united states are mrna vaccines. they rely on a tech elegy called messenger rna. this is a way of inserting or providing the body with

instructions in the form of mrna code that tells the body how to create antibodies against covid-19. it's like programming a piece of software. in the body reads the script that software, it knows what to do. it's been told what to produce. it goes about creating the immune response that keeps a person safe from covid-19 infection. it's a very new, groundbreaking technology that is been investigated for many years and been the subject of experiment it hadn't gotten far in terms of testing for rollout. the pandemic is the first time we have seen mrna technology in action. the vector vaccine is of this family. the johnson & johnson covid vaccine which may be approved

soon, the oxford astrazeneca vaccine was an early contender. that has run into some problems during the pha three testing. that is also a vector vaccine. while each of the projects uses a different so-called vector, all are based on the same fundamental technology. scientists take existing virus, render it harmless, most often they use the dino fire is. they deactivated, make it impossible to replicate itself. within that virus, they insert the dna of another virus. in this case, the spike protein from covid-19.

that is why we get the name vector. it's a means of transmission. the common cold virus carries the dna information from the spike protein of coronavirus. it's a way of transmitting necessary information into the body and the body creates the necessary antibodies to protect against disease. the developers of sputnik v compared vector technology to a rocketship meant to carry various payloads into space. the rocket stays the same, you can swap out whatever you like for the payload. it can carry military equipment, a missile, scientific research tools, communications satellites, you can keep

swapping out the payload. the livery mechanism stays the same. that is the metaphor the developers used to explain how vector technology works. amy: if you could tell us, why they called it sputnik v. >> the name speaks to the ambition of the vaccine from the russian side. sputnik is an obvious and immediate reference to the first satellite launched into space by the soviet union in the 1950's. it seemed like they were winning the space race. they put the united states on notice that the soviet union was a scientific and military powerhouse. naming the vaccine after this moment of soviet scientific glory telegraphs the notion that

this wasn't just a question of creating the necessary scientific product, a vaccine to help and the pandemic in russia, a way of announcing russian prowess, russian might in addition to being a necessary tool in the fight against the pandemic. it was a way of creating a soft power victory for russia, there have been so few in recent years. the results were announced on the same day that russian opposition leader is in court and may be sent to prison for 3.5 years after surviving an assassination attempt against him using poison. russia's image in the world is not positive. there is a lot of hope in russia that sputnik v could be

successful, that would help rehabilitate russia's image on the world stage. it would be a much needed good news story for russia in the international arena. amy: you mentioned alexey navalny. moscow police arrested at least 237 people today alone outside a court hearing for opposition figure alexei navalny. a russian judge is deciding whether to send navalny to prison for 3.5 years stemming from a previous conviction for which he was given a suspended sentence. outside the courthouse, protesters criticized the proceedings. >> the only possible opinion here is the trial is a sham. this is politically motivated, obviously. the crime is not under investigation. the person returning to russia,

the hearing. everything is a full-blown delusion. it has nothing to do with justice. amy: this is on top of the 51 hundred people who were arrested over the weekend across russia and called for the race of navalny and criticize the government. he was jailed since returning to russia after returning to russia january 17. he was poisoned with a nerve agent in navaly has accused august. russian president vladimir putin of being behind the attack. last week, he briefly spoke during a court proceeding. >> i want to say one more time, were the majority. we managed to find peopleho were robbed by those in power. those people are now under arrest. amy: while navalny has emerged

as russia's leading opposition figure and anti-corruption campaigner, his political roots have links to right-wing nationalist and anti-immigrant causes. in 2007 he was expelled from a liberal party for his involvement in the annual far-right russia march. he also -- he also once appeared in a video that compared muslims in the north caucasus to cockroaches. you are the moscow correspondent for the new yorker. you've been covering all this. can you talk about the latest? today, he said he was in a coma. >> that's right. at this very moment, he is awaiting a decision from a moscow court whi will determine if he is sent to prison for 3.5 years based on facts of the case you just mentioned. the russia authorities are charging him with violating the terms of his pare for not appearing regularly at a police

station. he didn't appear at the police station because he had been airlifted to germany for medical care after being poisoned. it w a kafkaesque dark comedy the consequences are not funny. they are very real. if the prosecutor gets his way, it's not a question of what the prosecutor wants or whathe judge wants but what the kremlin instructs them to do. he may be sent to prison for 3.5 years. his statement to court was very forceful and powerful. he didn't address the legal my new ship of the case as political context. he blamed putin personally, suggesting he could not tolerate the fact that he survived the poisoning attempt against his life but from his hospital bed and recovery and rehabilitation

in germany investigated the assassination attempt against him, identified the officers in the security service who were involved in the attempt to kill him with poison. he managed to get one of the officers on the phone and record a conversation in which the officer admitted to the plot. he referenced all of these facts. he saiputin and the security officials around him were out for revenge and that was why he was being put in court for having the boldness to return to russia after having barely survived the attempt on his life. he said the attempt would -- to put him in prison is an attempt to scare billion's of russians around the country. -- millions of russians around the country.

you can't put the entire country in prison. we are waiting the decision of the court. we will learn a lot about the kremlin's mood surrounding the protest. do they decide to sent him to prison? do they decide for a de-escalation measure like giving him house arrest. that will determine a lot about what the kremlin is thinking and how these events are likely to continue in coming days. juan: i wanted to ask you, we've heard a lot about navalny being an anticorruption crusader. all politicians who a out of power claim those in power are corrupt. what do we know about his political views? we know he is exposed anti-muslim sentiments on many occasions. what about his views on the annexation of crimea, on

russia's role in the syrian civil roar -- war? his view on what happened before vladimir putin came into power during the boris yeltsin years. >> i'm not soure that vladimir putin put a stop to corruption but nationalized it and put it under the control of himself and a circle of figures from his inner circle, creating a new oligarchy. he did not dismantle the oligarchy of the 90's. he created an oligarchy that was loyal to him and benefited from thei proximity to him. navalny himself, he is a politician. that means he can be vague when

politically expedient. he can avoid taking controversial positions that would alienate his audience. he can change his mind and float or use various political tendencies in the country to his advantage. that is the case with his flirtation with ration -- russian nationalism. that's the same thing at work in his ambiguous comments about the annexation of crimea. he does not suggest that russia would return crimea tomorrow. amy: we have 15 seconds. >> we will only know what sort of politician navalny is when he is allowed to participate in formal politics. he has been capped off the ballot. he was not allowed to run for

president. amy: we want to thank you for joining us. moscow correspondent for the new yorker. the link to his report is at■■■■