>> A disturbing pattern of targeted killings and assassination attempts against figures who challenge Russian President Vladimir Putin.

>> Did you ever think you’d be investigating an assassination plot against yourself?

>> No.

>> Being on Putin’s kill list has led to me being separated from my family.

This is how the regime likes to play the game, stripping away the fundamental things of your life one by one.

>> The prominent Kremlin critic and Russian opposition leader, Vladimir Kara-Murza, was arrested.

>> It’s important to remember that the regime of Vladimir Putin is not just an authoritarian regime, it is a regime of murderers.

>> Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.

>> It’s almost like a bounty system from the old wild west where you don’t know how many killers are out there for you.

The only hope is for this regime to fall before the order is fulfilled.

>> I think it shows they are no longer afraid.

That pretension of being a democratic state has vanished.

>> NARRATOR: Now on FRONTLINE, a special presentation of the award-winning film, Antidote.

(metal rattling) (elevator doors open) (keys jangling) (door shuts) (line ringing out) >> CHRISTO'S FATHER (speaking Bulgarian, on speaker): >> CHRISTO (speaking Bulgarian): >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: (chuckles) >> CHRISTO: >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: >> CHRISTO: >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: >> CHRISTO: >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: >> CHRISTO: (Christo's father coughs, sniffles) >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: >> CHRISTO: ♪ ♪ (church bell rings) >> As the lead Russia investigator for the groundbreaking news outlet Bellingcat, Christo Grozev has been the driving force behind a series of stunning revelations.

Pioneers in the use of publicly available data and social media for investigative journalism.

>> Out front now, Christo Grozev, he was able to identify the Russians involved in poisoning Putin opposition leader, Alexei Navalny.

>> CHRISTO: We're disabling more and more agents.

Burning whole sequences of names.

>> Grozev calls it the art of reconstructing a crime based on digital breadcrumbs.

A new form of journalism that takes human sources and their personal agendas out of the equation.

(phone ringing) (digital trilling) >> Breaking news-- in the past few minutes three Bulgarians have been convicted at the Old Bailey of spying for Russia.

>> The group targeted opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On a flight from London to Vienna they filmed journalist Christo Grozev and planned to kidnap him.

>> The minute the Kremlin perceives you as part of the intelligence game, you're a target.

>> I believe in the 21st century, the Russian authorities are using an assassin squad to eliminate, physically eliminate, the opponents of Putin's regime.

(phone ringing, scribbling) >> Bellingcat is the tool for the deep establishment.

>> It's like in a war; when you are a soldier, you understand that the risk is a part of the rules of the game.

The world has changed.

(footsteps echoing) >> Did you ever think you'd be investigating an assassination plot against yourself?

>> CHRISTO: No.

No, clearly this is from the realm of... a really, really crazy novel, yeah.

(stammering): It doesn't happen, really... until it does.

(car door shuts) (ignition starts) (seatbelt clicks) >> CHRISTO (speaking Russian, on speaker): >> DRIVER (speaking Russian): >> CHRISTO: >> DRIVER: >> CHRISTO: In my work as a journalist investigating Russia, I've constantly been challenged to find new ways to get the truth out.

In this case, helping an extremely valuable whistleblower, a scientist from Putin's poison program, escape.

>> Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is unconscious on a ventilator in a hospital after an alleged poisoning.

>> Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned by a military grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia.

>> Fighting for their lives in a U.K. hospital.

Suspected of being poisoned while they were sitting on a park bench.

>> The case fits a disturbing pattern of targeted killings and assassination attempts against figures who challenge Russian President Vladimir Putin.

>> PUTIN (in Russian): >> CHRISTO: This whistleblower is determined to tell the world how the state makes deadly poisons and targets political opponents.

So I'm setting up his escape across the border with a trusted contact.

>> DRIVER: >> DIRECTOR: Mm-hmm.

>> DRIVER: (Director responding in Russian) >> DIRECTOR: Mm-hmm.

>> CHRISTO: If he gets caught crossing the border he will be sent back to Russia and probably convicted of treason, or even worse.

We've agreed a meeting point in the middle of the countryside, but even here there are border guards everywhere; it's incredibly dangerous for him.

(phone ringing out) >> WHISTLEBLOWER (speaking Russian, on speaker): >> DRIVER: >> WHISTLEBLOWER: >> DRIVER: (phone chimes) >> DIRECTOR (in Russian): >> DRIVER: (beeping) >> CAMERAMAN (in Russian): >> DIRECTOR: >> DIRECTOR: He's coming through the field.

(beeping) (grunting, panting) >> DRIVER: >> WHISTLEBLOWER: Who are you?

(panting continues) >> DIRECTOR: >> WHISTLEBLOWER (breathing heavily): I... have done it.

(panting heavily) >> DIRECTOR: (Director laughs) >> DRIVER: >> WHISTLEBLOWER (in Russian): ♪ ♪ (cork pops) (exhales) (exhales) >> DRIVER: >> WHISTLEBLOWER: She is very glad for me.

(in Russian): ♪ ♪ >> CHRISTO: The adrenaline you get, the adrenaline rush from being able to outsmart the scariest and, and allegedly most sophisticated intelligence services in the world is unparalleled.

(cheers and applause) >> PUTIN: (cheers and applause) >> If you're Vladimir Putin, the list of things that cause you eternal headaches is very long, but somewhere near the top of that list is probably an oddly-named investigative consortium known as Bellingcat.

Bellingcat's work was being cited as key evidence in some of the highest courts in the land.

Their work got a boost with the arrival of Christo Grozev, a Bulgarian journalist who brought with him a wealth of experience in chasing corruption and criminality across Europe.

(indistinct chatter) >> Good evening, good evening, everybody.

Welcome to De Balie; my name's Yoeri Albrecht I'm the director of De Balie.

Tonight, we're very, very happy to have the rock star of, of, investigative journalism, the lead investigator at Bellingcat, Christo Grozev.

(applause) >> If Russia isn't talking about us, you know, when we're publishing this stuff, then that would be kind of almost more worrying than when they are talking about us, because when they are responding in the way they do, especially when it's so aggressive in some circumstances, you know they're worried about what we're saying so when they're reacting to us, we know it's because we found the truth, not because we've made a good guess.

>> So you do open source investigations, what does that mean?

>> That can be information that includes social media posts, things like Google Street View, satellite imagery, and really anything that's available to the public.

Over the last few years, we've used that kind of information to uncover poisonings, expose hitmen.

(munitions firing) With the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well, it's become not just journalism but accountability for war crimes and those sorts of things.

>> CHRISTO: "History was written by the victors," different now, different.

It's transparent, it's open source.

>> And, and years after the fact normally.

>> CHRISTO: Yeah and, and that, that should make people, especially in commanding positions, think twice before, before taking orders.

>> When you started working with Christo, did he have an unusual talent for this?

>> Yeah, at first I was like, this is pretty crazy, I, I do wonder where he's getting this from.

But because he could present the sources and explain where it was coming from, and having seen and understood just the depths of corruption in Russia, the state is gathering huge amounts of information about its citizens but the citizens are selling that information to anyone who wants to buy stuff.

Christo learnt how to navigate this particular space; all this data he's collected is hugely valuable.

>> Then it becomes very personal of course; it's not very dangerous?

>> CHRISTO: Yeah.

Some people say crazy, yeah.

I think it also depends on what kind of family you have.

Many of us in Bellingcat being allowed by our partners or wives or husbands to do that is also part of the equation because many of us would not doing, be doing it if we're not encouraged or allowed.

>> My dad is a... ...resourceful and determined, yet silly man who has managed to make one of the most dangerous men on the planet very angry.

(soft chuckle) But he's also not the man he used to be; his life changed a lot.

>> In what way?

>> Well, this isn't what he used to do for work, right?

He was a businessman, he managed radios and, and... >> Like radio stations?

>> Yeah, yeah.

And then ever since 2014, he started following his passion, which was journalism.

I think this is the real Christo, this, this obsessive, uh, journalist guy who sifts through spreadsheets all night to find something.

Also, it's a bit of a, like, David versus Goliath thing.

Like it's, it's one guy with his crypto that he buys the information with versus a murderous regime, right, so.

I, I respect him for what he's doing now.

Yeah, there's challenges and sacrifices but I, I support him 100%.

♪ ♪ >> PUTIN: >> (in Russian): >> CHRISTO: Well, apparently I'm wanted by Russia, I'm on a federal search warrant list.

With no explanation what for, what the charges are.

And the only kind of clue to it is actually coming from a Russian state media outlet that says oh, according to information we have, uh, from a source within the police, Grozev is charged with, uh, slander on the Russian army.

When I returned to my home in Vienna, I was confronted immediately with the local police saying, "No, no, no we have to ratchet up your security, it's not-- life is not going to be like it was before."

So a lot of things will have to change, I may have to change the place of, of life for my family because local police is telling me Vienna is not an easy place for you to be protected.

There are way too many Russians, way too many potential spies here that we are not aware of.

(car horns honking) Ironically, thanks to my work, I understand better than anyone what this means.

♪ ♪ (applause) >> So how many Russian agents have you uncovered?

>> CHRISTO: In terms of people of relevance who I've focused on, individually, we're about 300.

In terms of names that I know are spies, we're talking about 5,000.

It's one big puzzle.

It was only when we cracked open the network that we understood the true scale of this secret killing machine.

One of Putin's most infamous attempted assassinations targeted somebody who later became a friend of mine.

That's Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition figure.

After Putin tried to kill him with poison, Alexei returned to Russia to be immediately arrested.

Seeing him released is a personal ambition of mine, and I really believe we have a chance now.

Partly because of our investigations, western countries holds somebody in jail who has enormous value for Putin.

That's a man called Vadim Krasikov.

>> Who is Krasikov?

>> CHRISTO: Krasikov.

He's a professional killer.

One of his trademarks was shooting his victims from a bicycle while in motion.

There are assassinations connected to him dating right back to when Putin first came to power in the early 2000s.

He was finally caught in Berlin after shooting a man in broad daylight in a park.

He refused to speak to police.

We started to investigate and discovered his true identity.

The prosecutor included Bellingcat's evidence, I think, more than 90 times in the, referenced in the indictment.

He was then sentenced to life in prison.

Putin has never been so vocal about defending a killer as he has been with Krasikov.

And I have a contact in Russia who indicated that a prisoner swap involving Krasikov would be extremely interesting.

Because all of these assassins, they need to be promised that they will be taken care of.

It's how the mafia system works.

People don't want to risk their life for you if they're going to just rot in jail in Berlin forever.

He needs to get these people out.

So for Krasikov alone, we could ask not for one, but for many people.

At the top of the list would be Alexei Navalny and Vladimir Kara-Murza.

>> Prominent Kremlin critic and Russian opposition leader, Vladimir Kara-Murza, was arrested.

>> Vladimir is a politician and a journalist.

He had pushed and lobbied for sanctions against Putin's regime for many years.

Our investigations showed that, like Navalny, he was very much on Putin's kill list.

And we discovered that, yes, he had been targeted for poisoning twice.

Not once, but twice.

>> There's a brook what has foxes, beavers, some smaller creatures like rabbits, chipmunks-- chipmunks are adorable.

It's quiet, you can only hear the birds and the brook.

I have a theory, I have a theory that Vladimir-- you know, we moved into this house, I have a theory that he just wanted me to have a nice, comfortable environment to be worried in.

'Cause that sounds like him and just to create this for us as a family, this family nest, but there is a lot of space for everyone to come together, spend some time together to eat and drink and talk.

Um, well one day, maybe.

Yeah, one day.

>> CHRISTO: Following the Navalny investigation, we had an abundance of residual data because the team of poisoners they had traveled many, many, many hundreds of times over the last ten years and only about 15% of those trips could be correlated to places where Navalny had been, so the question was where else had they been?

Who else had they targeted?

And in trying to reconstruct and find overlaps with well-known Russian opposition figures, we found Vladimir Kara-Murza.

Both before the first and the second poisoning, members of the kill team had been near him, the day before he fell into a coma.

>> Bellingcat's investigation, it has gave us answers that we've been desperately looking for.

They identified a team of assassins in the service of the Russian state that had followed my husband on his trips across Russia continuously throughout years.

>> So sinister.

>> It is sinister to realize that there is a team of assassins whose only job is to physically eliminate the opponents of the Russian government.

A team of assassins in the service of the Russian state in the 21st century.

Yeah, it is, sinister is not even the word.

I mean, when he got back on his feet and could barely walk, I mean the wind could have blown him away like Mary Poppins.

And he took his cane and wobbled back to Moscow.

Now... ...he's basically held by the same people who have tried to kill him twice.

He was charged with high treason.

He's currently facing up to 24 years of strict regime.

>> OFFICER (in Russian): >> (in Russian): >> And now Evgenia Kara-Murza, the wife of Vladimir Kara-Murza.

And, Evgenia, I really appreciate your time tonight.

So your husband was in court today, I know it was a pre-trial hearing and then his detention period gets extended.

What can you tell us about where his case even stands right now?

>> My husband's pre-trial detention has indeed been extended, but the trial, the actual trial is about to start, it's gonna be held, uh, within one to two weeks according to Vladimir's lawyer in Moscow.

Uh, so we're waiting for, for it to begin.

I understand that the conditions of his uh, detention are definitely not good for his health after the two poisonings.

And I understand that uh, the symptoms are coming back.

>> Right, well, Evgenia, I appreciate your time, grateful to you for joining us, thank you.

>> Thank you very much.

(camera shutters clicking) (distant sirens blaring) >> Christo Grozev, lead Russia investigator for Bellingcat.

Christo was just placed (on TV): on Russia's wanted list.

So Christo let me just start... >> CHRISTO: I was in New York working.

>> Why do you think Russia and Putin now have just put you on the wanted list?

>> CHRISTO: I don't know, the answer is uh, there's no explanation, I think it's a fatwa of some sort, I mean it's like a, a message that to other journalists as well that don't come and don't meddle into, don't do investigations in Russia.

(passing traffic, car horns) (din of the train station) (train bell ringing) Literally, on the way to the airport I got a message from the security services.

"We just found out there's an "imminent and direct threat to your life if you were to land in any European country."

♪ ♪ I think it's the first time that you stop to think about it.

(car horn honking) Before that the, the general threat was almost like a, a fun thing to know.

(din of the street) And now imminent, concrete, there.

♪ ♪ Don't fly to your home.

(door closes, keys jingling) (places keys down) (line ringing out) (ringing out continues) >> CHRISTO'S FATHER (in Bulgarian, on speaker): >> CHRISTO (in Bulgarian): >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: (chuckles) >> CHRISTO: >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: >> CHRISTO: >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: >> CHRISTO: >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: >> CHRISTO: (Christo's father coughs, sniffles) >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: >> CHRISTO: >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: >> CHRISTO: >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: >> CHRISTO: >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: >> CHRISTO: >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: >> CHRISTO: >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: >> CHRISTO: >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: >> CHRISTO: >> CHRISTO'S FATHER: >> CHRISTO: ♪ ♪ (keys clacking) (line ringing out, keys clacking continues) (line ringing out continues) >> CHRISTO'S WIFE (Bulgarian): >> CHRISTO (in Bulgarian): (sighing): Did my dad call?

>> CHRISTO'S WIFE: >> CHRISTO (in Bulgarian): Just in case.

>> CHRISTO'S WIFE: >> CHRISTO: (Christo's wife speaking Bulgarian) >> CHRISTO'S WIFE: (Christo speaking Bulgarian) >> CHRISTO'S WIFE: >> CHRISTO: (din of the street) >> I think we've known each other for almost four years now, and we speak a lot, and that was the only time when I felt Christo was completely devastated.

Sometimes when you see how much time Christo invests in work you might think that he doesn't really care about his family because he spends so little time with them.

But emotionally, they are... his home, his cradle.

His father is so very proud of what he does, and I think that's very important to Christo.

And Steph is, I guess, a person that keeps his feet on the ground.

(car radio playing) But now he's living on the other side of the Atlantic.

(radio playing continues) And the only thing that seems certain is that there's people out there trying to kill him.

♪ ♪ (distant siren blaring) (din of the street) (rustling, movement) (distant siren blaring) >> CHRISTO: When they get to a point of putting somebody on a kill list, they don't take that lightly.

They, they sent an advance team that monitors the locations that the target goes to for days, sometimes weeks, so you have to be careful every time.

(beeping) Overall, I need to work out the plan of what I'm going to do.

And to make things worse, my dad has not answered the phone for the last two days.

(line ringing out) >> Are you ever able to relax?

(line ringing out continues) >> CHRISTO: No, I had a... a holistic check on my nervous system, and the doctor showed me the results, and he said he's never seen anything like this.

The level of stress in my system is on a constant level, and it doesn't change, doesn't fluctuate like it does with any other person, it's just a stacked-up level.

And the doctor interpreted that by saying that even when I'm asleep I'm at the same level of stress.

Um... so the answer is no.

>> I think most people would say that constant level of stress is understandable.

>> CHRISTO: Yeah.

That's what the doctor said as well.

(line ringing out) >> SOPHIA (in Bulgarian, on speaker): >> CHRISTO (in Bulgarian): >> SOPHIA: >> CHRISTO: >> SOPHIA: (both speaking Bulgarian) >> CHRISTO: >> SOPHIA: ...or something.

>> CHRISTO: Mm-hmm.

>> SOPHIA: >> CHRISTO: Where does he live then?

>> SOPHIA: So, he's here occasionally, but he never spends the night here ever.

(in Bulgarian): ...funniest thing in the world.

(in Bulgarian): ...and I am scared.

(in Bulgarian): ...Christian is gone.

I feel like I'm on my own, (speaking Bulgarian) We are one big happy family!

>> CHRISTO: We've caused havoc, so.

♪ ♪ >> If you want to go after Christo Grozev, you, you'd better to kill him than to injure him.

♪ ♪ First of all, he's very clever person, all this Sherlock Holmes illusions that are used in the media describing him are pretty accurate.

Dictators, they love darkness, they love silence, they hate transparency and this will never change.

So, if I was Putin I would definitely kill Christo Grozev; without any doubts.

♪ ♪ (keys clacking, doorbell ringing) (ringing continues) (ringing stops, high-pitched beeping) >> I think by exposing the plot against Navalny, he did something that he hadn't done before, because he got involved in Russian domestic politics... (weather report playing on speaker) ...and that clearly exposed him to a new level.

>> CHRISTO: I'll call my dad, I am really worried that he hasn't answered the, the call three days.

I'll put it on speaker just in case he answers, okay?

(line ringing out) (sighs) (line ringing out continues) I've tried to call him on a regular call and his phone is off.

But WhatsApp rings on, which is weird.

It doesn't show calling, but ringing, which is strange if his phone is off.

And uh, the neighbor who's very friendly, he doesn't get my messages, so my wife is calling him on a regular line now trying to get him to go.

I'm most afraid that the Russians may have decided to use him as a pressure point.

'Cause he's way too open; I mean he's on Facebook posting photos of me, of him, easy to find out where he lives.

♪ ♪ So Friday we didn't reach him, Saturday we didn't reach him, Sunday no answer.

And then that was only half of the worry, the other half was that he hadn't posted anything on Facebook, and he was living on Facebook since my mum died.

He actually told me that he has spent his life, which means the last ten years, making fun of my mother for being on Facebook and then he discovered that actually it could be a tool to spread the word and to engage with smarter people than you are.

But he hadn't posted anything since Thursday.

So on Sunday evening I called my friend Karl and asked him to go and see what's happening; didn't want to scare my family.

(bleep) So on Sunday, Karl said he'll drive there, then he called me and said nobody's answering the door, no lights are on.

So then I called the police, they said, "we're calling the fire brigade," because that's the way they get into houses in Austria.

Then I got a message, "we are entering," and then there was nothing.

Maybe that was the worst time of waiting for something.

An hour later I got a call from this police officer who told me that he was dead.

They made the... the apartment a crime scene, they sealed it and locked it because they knew that there was this alert that there's a kill team in Austria.

So for them it was an immediate... hypothesis that this death was not just random, it might have been just a, a pretext or a lure for me to go back to a funeral, so.

(din of the street) They're doing an autopsy as we speak, and, uh... (sighs) there was a lot of drama and shock in his life, especially when he found out that, that I'm not going back to Austria for the foreseeable future, so one can imagine that it was too much for him.

And there's a 50% chance that they killed him.

My problem is that either way I feel guilty because either way if I wasn't doing what I was doing he would probably be alive now.

(laptop chimes) This was the last time I saw my dad.

We had just received the news that "Navalny" the film was nominated for an Oscar, and yeah, he was the happiest person on earth.

He was the only member of the family who really was proud of what I was doing.

Everybody else finds it interesting, but questionable whether I am doing something that is worth doing and he was always a believer.

So in a way, I would lose my biggest fan and champion, so I feel terrible about that.

♪ ♪ I found a friend who's flying a plane to Europe, doesn't go to Austria, goes to another country.

So just get on that plane tomorrow morning, and I'll clear U.S. Customs, but I will not be listed in any passenger manifest.

And then I will uh, get on a... in a car or a train but I will not leave any traces, I'll not book any... anything under my name and I will sneak into Austria.

♪ ♪ I was put up by the Austrian police in a safe house.

They didn't let me stay with my family.

Actually, they've only let me see my family a couple of times since I arrived here, and that has to happen in a different safe house, not even the one that I'm currently in.

Roman Dobrokhotov has been messaging me saying he has important news he urgently needs to share.

(phone ringing) >> DOBROKHOTOV (in Russian, on phone): >> CHRISTO (in Russian): >> DOBROKHOTOV: >> CHRISTO: Mm-hmm.

>> DOBROKHOTOV: >> CHRISTO: (bleep) So Roman was visited by the police.

I was told that five residents of the U.K. were arrested because they'd been spying on him and creating... sort of a daily routine profile on him.

>> SCHMID (on laptop speaker): (bleep) (bleep) >> CHRISTO: Yeah.

Then I went to a meeting with my family at the police station.

This time the guys asked me to stay.

And told me that... they received information from intelligence... a foreign intelligence service saying that several people were arrested this week, and on them they found video and photographic surveillance of my house and my family.

And then of course, I had to confront Steph with this, and it's not going well.

In the confinement of a safe house it's kind of coming to I can't even have an argument with my wife normally.

(sighs heavily) It seems like this may be the last time I'm going to see my town, my Vienna for a long time.

I've lived here for more than 20 years and now I was told I have to forget about it.

See you on the other side, bye.

(din of the street) ♪ ♪ Being on Putin's kill list has led to me being separated from my family.

This is how the regime likes to play the game; stripping away the fundamental things of your life one by one.

I've had to quit my role at Bellingcat too.

I've got too many other things to focus on now.

For months, I've been working behind the scenes on a prisoner swap between Russia and the West.

America, Germany, and the Kremlin have been in discussions.

As far as I understand, nothing is yet definitively agreed, but time is critical.

Both Alexei Navalny's and Vladimir Kara-Murza's health are a constant worry to us.

They've both survived previous poisonings and have been languishing in jail for a long time.

>> Of course I've been as vocal as possible... >> CHRISTO: Mm-hmm.

>> ...since the detention, and I've been using every single platform available to speak out and to scream as loud as I can.

His life is in danger, obviously.

Because they see him as a personal enemy, they've tried to kill him twice, so putting him in prison and isolating him, maybe they're just thinking that, you know, after the trial he will be moved to a high security prison.

And my contact with him will be pretty much severed.

In a high security prison anything can happen.

>> CHRISTO: Yeah.

To traitors.

>> And they-- Yes, to traitors.

>> CHRISTO: I've been trying to create an architecture to allow for a swap of all political prisoners in Russia for all the spies.

>> You're ambitious.

>> CHRISTO: Well, let's say as many as possible.

>> Mm.

What do you think he wants in return?

>> CHRISTO: Well, basically this mafia pledge that we don't leave people behind, because otherwise, the next people won't be loyal to me.

He wants some of these, like the killer in Berlin.

He definitely wants him.

>> Yeah.

Okay.

>> CHRISTO: He's his personal killer, that's what we found out.

♪ ♪ (in Russian): >> PROKHOROV (in Russian, on laptop speaker): >> CHRISTO: >> PROKHOROV: (crowd cheering and applauding) >> I think it shows they are no longer afraid.

Trying to kill opponents secretly means that you still want to pretend you're a somewhat intact, democracy-like system.

And... in the last couple of years, that pretension of being a democratic state has vanished.

It's gone now.

(cheers and applause) You can't say anything.

You're not allowed to call the war a war.

That is a fully totalitarian approach.

Well, it's the Soviet Union reloaded.

>> It was clear after the Navalny poisoning for me that he's not just a kind of "rational politician" who just want to keep power forever.

I think every month we see something that never happened before 'cause we don't have to pretend that you're a normal person anymore.

Everyone knows who Putin is so the tempo of escalation is growing.

(speaking Russian) (voiceover): There was a very big wave of arrests and pressure in Russia.

FSB broke into my apartment, which meant that I need to leave the country immediately.

(speaking Russian) ♪ ♪ But some other people stayed.

♪ ♪ (din of the street) >> (in Russian): (journalists talking in Russian) >> (in Russian): ♪ ♪ >> His health has been actually deteriorating quite rapidly.

These poisoning attacks resulted in peripheral nerve damage, and he's developed symptoms of polyneuropathy in both his feet and his left hand, which means that he's basically losing feeling in his feet and his hand and cannot use his feet properly.

This diagnosis can actually lead to paralysis.

>> So he'd been poisoned twice, you both knew the risks of returning of Russia, you must have asked him not to go.

>> You know, trying to convince him not to go back to Russia, trying to convince him would be trying to convince him to give up his work.

That would mean that I'm not accepting him as he is but that I want him to change.

Would I want him to change?

No, because I admire and love him for who he is; exactly this particular, specific person.

(indistinct chatter) I believe that it is harder to kill someone when the entire world is watching, so I'm trying to be as loud as I can.

For years, I'm trying to attract as much attention to Vladimir's case.

(inaudible dialogue) (voiceover): And because I want...

I want to get Vladimir back, and first of all, I want him to survive this.

(indistinct chatter) Is it scary to face a monstrous repressive regime?

Oh yes, there are no doubts about that.

And in the words of U.S. President Roosevelt, courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.

I couldn't be prouder of my husband and couldn't wish for a better example for my kids to follow.

(applause) ♪ ♪ >> Does the threat to you, the threat to your family, does it make you consider just walking away?

>> CHRISTO: On my own, I would not have had that thought.

But that thought, um, has been suggested to me by both friends and family, so it has to be on the agenda.

The problem is that walking away is going to marginally reduce the risk, cause this entity, this, this regime, uh, is very vengeful.

And uh, with my father's death the fact that I could not say a proper goodbye to him, and that I had to be here in the first place... ...is hard to forgive.

Yeah, I mean I have, I haven't dealt with the grief and the guilt, um.

Yeah, that's part for later.

Survival and keeping my family together is priority now.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Across the front pages, there are photographs of the people suspected of being Russian spies in the U.K. >> The defendants are all Bulgarian nationals who have lived in the U.K. for years, working in a variety of jobs... >> Orlin Roussev, Bizer Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova were arrested under the Official Secrets Act in February, with properties searched in London and Great Yarmouth.

>> We heard on Friday that these three men and two women were going to be appearing here at Westminster Magistrates' Court, they are all aged between 29 and 45 years old.

>> It is alleged this group were involved in surveillance and that this surveillance was apparently for the purpose of assisting Russia to carry out hostile action, including potential abductions.

♪ ♪ >> CHRISTO: Dear chairman, honorable committee members, let me start by asserting that the notion of exclusively domestic repression is a misconception in my view.

I discovered that Russian intelligence officers had surveilled and tailed me for nearly two years.

Regrettably, I am not at liberty to disclose the specifics of this operation as the case is currently under official investigation in several countries.

The overarching objective of these repressive operations appear to be either assassination or intimidation through the threat of assassination.

Russia's regime has been permitted to persecute its opponents domestically without legal consequences for decades.

They remain incentivized to treat the rest of the world as a playground for pursuing their so-called national interest against an ever-expanding list of targets.

Thank you very much.

(distant siren blaring, phone chimes) When the law enforcement agency told me I shouldn't go back to Europe, they didn't volunteer information about where the risk comes from, they hinted strongly that it's related to my investigations, to the work we've done at Bellingcat over the years, so I had to find out who it might have been.

Then the British police arrests five Bulgarians.

So I started looking at the names of the Bulgarians, and the leader of the pack, Orlin Roussev, I went back through, what, eight years of investigations and we found him in dozens of messages with another forgotten object of investigation which was Jan Marsalek.

>> When he told me he thought Marsalek was behind it...

...I thought he'd, Christo had gone finally, he'd gone crazy.

♪ ♪ Jan Marsalek is one of the most wanted people in Germany, because he had mounted the biggest corporate fraud ever in German history.

He was the chief operating officer of Wirecard, which was one of the biggest publicly traded companies in Germany.

>> From the payments giant Wirecard, shares jumping more than 6% there.

>> The company went bust because it had invented 1.9 billion euros into its balance sheet that supposedly were never there.

>> Just quickly to Wirecard, uh, we saw some stock action this morning, that stock falling again heavily down 27%, we've had news of a police raid on its headquarters and four other properties as, uh, authorities continue to gather evidence.

(siren blaring) >> CHRISTO: And then Jan Marsalek vanished.

One place where we found him to have crossed the border was Belarus; a private plane.

By going back through his past travel, we found out that he had gone to Russia I think more than 50 times in the last few years.

>> And then Christo, by analyzing the migration files, saw that Marsalek was stopped while trying to exit Russia in 2017 and was kept there for several hours, and at the time he said this may be the very instant they recruited him.

I hope we find out what really is behind it very soon.

I think the idea of him being half-blackmailed, half-seduced into this world is a very good one.

♪ ♪ >> Why does Jan Marsalek have a grudge against you?

>> CHRISTO: I would imagine it's a favor to the Russian state, plus some personal satisfaction because uh, we outed him, uh, for defecting to Russia.

>> Are you afraid?

>> CHRISTO: I have no... object, subjective sense of fear that they followed me, I have a feeling of terror that they were following my family or taking photographs of my family.

I asked the Americans, I asked, uh, some other law enforcement and they said that under the old rules, my family would be safe.

Whether there are new rules of the game, nobody knows.

♪ ♪ (phone ringing) (ringing continues) >> SOPHIA (on speaker): Hi.

>> CHRISTO: Hi, hi.

So the police have been at home?

>> SOPHIA: But there were like five or six of the (speaking Bulgarian) men in these white, white coats and all white clothing, they tracked like fingerprints and whatever they could do and they said they'll have results at some point but not yet.

>> CHRISTO: So what did they tell you?

>> SOPHIA: Um, so they have printed messages and they sent a message to someone called Jan Marsalek and they said that they got into our apartment and got a laptop of yours.

They've been planning this for like, days or weeks or months or years.

>> CHRISTO: Yeah.

>> SOPHIA: They've been watching; they had to wait until they saw everybody leave the apartment.

>> CHRISTO: Do you feel scared?

>> SOPHIA: No, well they told us to take it very seriously, but not to panic, whatever that means.

But, the guy said that right now is the most unsafe time for you, so.

>> CHRISTO: Really?

>> SOPHIA: Yeah.

Just so you know.

(sighs) (distant traffic) >> This is CNN breaking news.

>> And we are just coming back, joining you with breaking news.

CNN has learned that Alexei Navalny has died.

That's according to the Russian prison serv-- prison service, rather.

I want to go straight to Nick Paton Walsh.

Nick, as we get this news.

There had been some movement, of course, in the last several weeks.

He had been moved to this very difficult work camp up by the Arctic Circle.

What more are we learning this morning about when this may have happened?

And are there any potential details at this point?

>> Yeah, look, I should couch this in that what we have at the moment are reports from Russian state media, but frankly, given how the information system in Russia works... >> CHRISTO: Just last night, I was talking with Maria Pevchikh.

She's the head of Navalny's anti-corruption fund, saying we're so close now with the prisoner swap.

Germany are fully behind us.

And she said, "What if he kills him now?"

I said, "No, why would he kill him now?"

She says, "You don't know him.

"You don't know Putin, he's a psychopath.

"He might decide now that he's gotten the Germans far enough.

"He's gotten the Americans far enough.

"And he will just remove Navalny from the equation "and he'll still get the deal.

That's how he thinks."

I said, "No, no, no, that's not, that's not possible.

"I mean, he will know that the Germans will never hand over Krasikov after, if this were to happen."

She said, "Just wait and see."

And now... now it just happened.

I think... ...it feels even worse, because the hope of getting him out was so realistic.

(sighs) I don't know how I'm going to face his kids, his daughter, his, his wife, because I had given them a little bit of hope.

The swap, and the future of political prisoners in Russia, is now far more uncertain.

So it's, it's a terrible feeling.

Not long afterwards, the trial of the Bulgarians Marsalek hired to target me got started.

And I finally got to see messages they all sent to each other.

Marsalek writes: "I think it would be a good start "if we would have somebody to sniff around a bit Grozev's home "and to see where he usually goes, e.g.

identify his car and place a tracker."

Ten days later... "Some f-ing genius just suggested again to kidnap Grozev and to take him to Moscow," writes Marsalek.

Orlin Roussev responds: "If you're serious about it, "and if Grozev is in Bulgaria, "I have the resources to kidnap, drug him, "and lock him up in a secure cave.

"Also, we have explored a convenient place "for a more permanent base to watch over his entrance.

"We're testing two cameras as planned for his father's "apartment to install, and one at the parking next to the car."

They were planning to install cameras at my father's apartment.

Then later that night: "Tomorrow, we'll start testing the scenarios for an ambush.

"I definitely have at least one "with a bit of sadistic attitude, "who would love to be trained how to kill... ...and to kill painfully, not just with one shot".

Then Marsalek writes: "If we would find someone, we could contract "for a suicide attack on him, that would be the best.

"Attacks him, cuts off his head in the street and then blows up himself."

Jesus.

>> Is this beyond-- I mean, you obviously knew headlines from the "Met," but is this-- >> CHRISTO: No, this is way beyond, I mean... ...they never told me what the plans were.

They, they never told me that they went to my dad's apartment, other than that photo they showed.

But they seem to have-- and the concept of an ambush, and let alone the decapitation.

I mean, no, obviously nobody told me that before.

It's clearly distressing to read it.

Second of November: "We have two people in Vienna on an almost constant basis.

"They brought special gas.

"So their suggestion is to wait Grozev to fall asleep.

Then they release the gas inside the apartment."

Jesus.

Marsalek writes: "Now that would be (bleep) glorious."

"And then burglarize everything while he's dead sleeping."

>> That's your home in Vienna.

>> CHRISTO: That's my home in Vienna.

With my family and my kids there.

(sighs) (bleep) >> Police!

Police, stay where you are!

Police!

Stay there!

Stay there, stay there, stay there!

Show me your hands!

Get in there, get in there!

>> Some more breaking news to bring you now.

Three Bulgarians have been found guilty of spying for Russia.

Of being part of a spy unit, in fact, run by Wirecard fugitive Jan Marsalek.

>> Roussev moved to the U.K. as a businessman over 15 years ago.

After being recruited as a Russian spy, he recruited other Bulgarians working in normal jobs to carry out surveillance, including Bizer Dzhambazov and girlfriend Katrin Ivanova: a couple who ran courses in London teaching British values.

>> Introduction to British values... >> Throughout Europe they spied on journalists Christo Grozev and Roman Dobrokhotov, who exposed Russia's role in the Salisbury nerve agent attack, with the cell deploying these spy glasses to film them.

Using the glasses to film Christo Grozev on a plane.

Sending the footage in real time to the cell.

♪ ♪ (sighs) >> (softly): Okay.

Vladimir Kara-Murza's last statement to Russian court.

(in Russian): "As a historian, this is an occasion for reflection.

"At one point during my testimony, "the presiding judge reminded me "that one of the extenuating circumstances was remorse "for what the accused has done, "and although there is little that's amusing "about my present situation, I could not help smiling.

"I'm in jail for my political views, "for speaking out against the war in Ukraine, "for many years of struggle "against Vladimir Putin's dictatorship.

Not only do I not repent of any of this, I am proud of it."

>> (in Russian): >> "I know the verdict, I knew it a year ago "when I saw people in black uniforms and black masks "running after my car.

Such is the price for speaking up in Russia today."

>> (in Russian): >> "But I also know that the day "will come when the darkness over our country "will dissipate, when black will be called black "and white will be called white, "when a war will be called a war, "and when those who kindled and unleashed this war "rather than those who tried to stop it, "will be recognized as criminals.

"This day will come as inevitably "as spring follows even "the coldest winter and then our society will open "its eyes and be horrified by what terrible crimes "were committed on his behalf.

"From this realization, "from this reflection, the long difficult "but vital path toward the recovery "and restoration of Russia, its return to the community "of civilized countries, will begin.

"Even today, even in the darkness surrounding us, "even sitting in this cage, I love my country and believe in our people."

>> (in Russian): >> "I believe that we can walk this path."

>> Breaking news.

Fast moving, breaking news.

Per a senior administration official, there is a prisoner swap underway right now between Russia, the United States, and other countries.

That is all we know.

That is all we can say.

That is all we can report at this moment.

♪ ♪ >> Following Alexei Navalny's death, we thought this hope was lost with him.

But in the background, negotiations continued, insisting that this time Putin must pay a much higher price for his assassin, Krasikov.

In the end, 16 people were released by the Kremlin, including American reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, Russian critics Oleg Orlov, Ilya Yashin, and Vladimir Kara-Murza.

♪ ♪ >> VLADIMIR (in Russian, on speaker): >> (in Russian): >> VLADIMIR: >> VLADIMIR'S DAUGHTER: (sniffles) >> VLADIMIR: >> VLADIMIR'S DAUGHTER: >> VLADIMIR: >> VLADIMIR'S DAUGHTER: >> VLADIMIR: It's important to remember that the regime of Vladimir Putin is not just an authoritarian regime, it is a regime of murderers.

Each of us was accompanied by our personal FSB officer.

The moment our plane was taking off, he told me, "Look out the window, that's the last time you're seeing your motherland."

(laughs) I told him, "Look, man, I'm a historian by education.

"I don't only... feel.

"I don't only believe.

"I know that I'll be back in my home country, and it'll be much quicker than you think."

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> CHRISTO: The autopsy results came back but they're inconclusive.

So I will never know for sure what happened to my dad.

Yeah, usually I would knock and he will open, and he'll like be full of energy and smiling, and start telling me about his new theory on how to get rid of Putin.

>> I guess when you're on the other side of the world, it's easier to think of it in the abstract.

>> CHRISTO: Exactly.

And the whole drive to here, I mean you, like, hundreds of times it ended up with a, with something I was looking forward, 35 minutes, just have a beer with him or a coffee, mandatory coffee.

With... earlier with him and my mum and now just with him for the last year, and now uh, I still had the sort of exhilaration during the trip, subconsciously, but it stops here.

They've attempted to infiltrate every part of my life.

Now, I can't trust anyone, because the threat to me remains unchanged.

It's almost like a... bounty system from the old wild west where you don't know how many killers are out there for you, because there's an order, a kill order.

So basically there's a, a coin or a medal or whatever that's given to several people who are pursuing this outcome for the Kremlin.

So that's why there's no way to investigate myself out of it.

The only hope is for this regime to fall before the order is fulfilled by somebody.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Go to pbs.org/frontline.

>> Russia's regime has been permitted to persecute its opponents domestically without legal consequences for decades.

They remain incentivized to treat the rest of the world as a playing ground.

>> NARRATOR: And see more of our reporting on dissent in Putin's Russia.

Visit the FRONTLINE archive where you can stream more than 300 documentaries.

>> Connect with FRONTLINE on Facebook and Instagram and stream anytime on the PBS app, YouTube, or pbs.org/frontline.

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org >> For more on this and other "FRONTLINE" programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline.

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