Putin out. That was the slogan at a protest in Moscow in December. 2011. The BBC called it the biggest anti-government rally there since the fall of the Soviet Union. Prior to the rally, its organizer was a man little known outside certain Russian circles. A blogger named Alexei Navalny. He told reporters at the time that Russia was ripe for revolution and that Putin's party was one of swindlers and thieves. Over the next decade, he became known worldwide as a thorn in Putin's side. He was always seemingly being arrested or investigated or tried for one charge or another. Charges, Navalny says, were all trumped up. But he was steadfast, continuing to agitate the elite as he agitated for democracy. Then this happened oh, those were Navalny's groans after being poisoned with a chemical nerve agent called Novichok. CNN and the investigative group Bellingcat found evidence that an elite Russian spy team that specialized in nerve agents had been trailing Navalny for years. Five months after he was attacked, Navalny returned to his homeland, having mostly recovered from the attack and knowing he faced prison time in Russia for a prior conviction. He was arrested on arrival today in Navalny's in a maximum security prison where he is in and out of solitary confinement, has little contact with his lawyers and can only communicate with his family by letters, many of which disappeared en route to their intended recipient. He is the subject of an extraordinary documentary from CNN films called Simply Navalny, as awards season approaches. The film has generated a ton of buzz, and it will air on CNN on January 14th at 9 p.m. It's also available on HBO. Max Navalny's brave daughter, Dasha, joins me now exclusively. Dasha Navalny here. Welcome thank you so much for having me. So first, tell us, what is the latest on your father's condition? He is, I imagine, Russian prisons are not that great. Yes. Well, no one wants to be in the prison overall, but Russian prisons take it to a whole nother level. My father is currently for three months now he has been in solitary confinement and the with me and it's a small cell, six, seven by eight feet. And it's can it can be called a cage for someone who is of his six foot three height. He only has one iron sole, which is so to the floor and all the personal possessions. He's allowed to have a mug, a toothbrush and one book Currently, he has some bad back problems and he has been trying to get in touch with doctors. And he's been complaining a lot to the prison guards and the prison situation. But the prison doctor visited him once, prescribed him with injections that are not really helping him. And they're not giving us medicate the medication, name a diagnosis or even refusing to tell us the name of the doctor who is treating him Everybody I have talked to who has been through solitary confinement says it is hell. It is is the worst form of punishment. And for three months, you say he's been in. Yes. Well, people he's been in solitary confinement nine times now. And what they do to say that, you know, he's not in solitary confinement for such a long time is they put him in for a week, then take him out for one day and then say, well, now you violated another rule. So we're going to put you back into solitary confinement altogether for since August now. So for almost four months now, he's been in solitary confinement. There's this amazing moment in the film, Navalny, where your father is impersonating the national security adviser to to to Putin. And he asks the people who he thinks poisoned him, whether they did, how they and the guy starts explaining what he did. Yes. Yeah. But this one is just an example of a milkshake. Or they can discuss the move opposite them, not the absurd subject, but also a new movement to more or less machine import. Your system does not put your mobile application on, doesn't. It's just crucial that talk to a prosecutor, go over to certain or seen or both Photoshop within a year or more because there was no law to deliver something that I thought was what was the general rule in Russia and would seem framework to approach for norms of procedure, which nobody is now you know, from a as a dramatic moment in movie it's it's amazing. But you how did you react when you're seeing the government of Russia is now admitting that they were basically trying to poison to kill your father. Right well the thing about the Russian government I would say Putin's government officials is that they've been unlawfully doing everything they wanted for so long that they their communists caught up to them. And one of the people didn't even think that it was a possibility for not a government official to be calling them and asking them about this. They didn't even think it was possible for us to investigate the poisoning and find out what really happened. So I'm I'm happy that Kudryavtsev spoke out about it. I mean, he didn't speak out about it, but he had the accident. Yes. Accidentally spilled everything. But I'm you know, it's like like we said in the movie, it's scary because he is probably now in hiding or killed because because of that conversation, of course. And you've dealt with this your whole life. Your mother was arrested and you've had uncles who are in jail. What is it like growing up? I mean, I'm thinking of you as the Stanford undergraduate and people at Stanford are sitting around worrying about what's the best app that pizza or how are they going to get the best offer from Apple and how are you able to maintain the ability to be, you know, fully at Stanford while you have this whole other thing going on in the back of your head? It's a strange situation. I I'm definitely managing it more now that I've grown up because in middle school, you know, I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life while balancing you know, my dad running for president and my dad being arrested. But like I said, before, having this incredible support system that's been around me my entire life, you know, my grandparents who are very supportive of what my dad does, my mom who was just a champion and so compassionate and incredible and a father who is not only a great politician but an amazing, warm, smart dad. It makes it easier. I want to take you to that moment where you you realize after he has been arrested, imprisoned, they've attempted to poison him. He's been in a coma. He comes out of this he decides to go back to Russia. He must have realized that what's going to happen when he goes back to Russia is not is not good. He's going to get arrested possibly. I mean, they've tried to kill him. Just months earlier. At that point, did you tell him, Dad, don't go back. You can't you know, you're comfortably here in the West, organize opposition from Germany, from America, from Stanford. Well, of course, there was this little voice in the back of my head saying, you know, cuff him to your hand and never let go. He you want your dad being by your side. But we never had a family conversation of whether he going to go back. It was always something that we accepted as a family. We knew that he would want to go back. You know, he's a Russian politician. We're a Russian family. You can't do Russian politics from abroad. The last time I talked to him was a year ago on New Year's. They allowed him to have a five minute phone call. But you know how you've probably seen in spy movies whenever there is a muffin sound, you know that the phone call is being taped. And for some reason, the prison administration, things that we're going to be talking about, something secretive during the phone calls on New Year's so the whole phone call for 5 minutes, it was just going back fourth. What's. Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Hello? Can you hear me? And then just of the my things sound. But I I'm happy that the attorneys are getting to see him I'm I'm definitely that's that's something that's making me very happy is that there's people who you know, there to to see that he is not doing terribly, terribly, although his prison conditions are far worse. And getting worse by the day. So I doubt very much the Russian media will air this interview. But there are ways that things get around. If your father were to be watching, what would you say to him? Oh, I would say that we're there for him and that we're doing everything we can possible to get him out and change the regime and, you know, educate people and that we're continuing the work that he started a long time ago and that he shouldn't give up.