Who allegedly poisoned Alexei Navalny?

This week on The Sound Kitchen you'll hear the answer to the question about the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. There's a short history lesson about Bangladesh and International Mother Language Day, as well as Mitul Kansal's “Happy Moment” – there's even a salute to a very special birthday girl. All that and great music, too - and of course, the new quiz question. Just click on the “Audio” arrow above and enjoy!

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll hear the winners' names announced and the week's quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you've grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

Do you remember The Sound Kitchen Listeners Cookbook we published a couple of years ago, filled with your recipes? I had good news this week: our Communications Department has decided to re-print the original, and add some new recipes – from you, of course! So cooks, get your recipes to me, and quickly – we must “strike while the iron is hot”! Include a photograph of yourself, just in case we can include them this time around. Send your recipes to [email protected] - don't put it off!

It's ePOP time!
RFI Planète Radio is sponsoring a video contest, and we want you to enter!

Planète Radio is an RFI department that gives voices to remote populations around the world. They are looking for 3-minute videos about climate change, the environment, pollution - told by the people it affects. Here's what Planète Radio says about the competition:

“Environmental deterioration, climate change, pollution, everybody's talking about it. But amid articles, figures and expert reports, what do we really know about the feelings of the people already impacted? The video clips produced by the ePOP community in more than 50 countries allow us to hear from those who never ask for anything, yet have seen it all. Those who are already living with these changes that are deteriorating their quality of life.”

Your project should be intergenerational: get together with your grandfather, your aunt, someone older in your community and ask them how they feel about what is happening where they live, maybe in the place where they grew up. How do you feel about it? Tell us what you think, too.

For competition guidelines and more information about the different categories you can enter, click here    

You can also write to us at [email protected] if you need more help.

We're very proud that the winner in the ePOP 2020 RFI Club category went to an English language club – Adita Prithika's RFI Agnichiragu Phoenix Club in Tami Nadu, India. Here's Adita's award-winning video.

She won a trip to Paris to attend an ePOP workshop (as soon as we have Covid-19 under control!) and five ePOP turning kits (tripod, lavalier microphone, USB key, report bag, t-shirt). 

Please note that you do not have to be a member of an RFI English Club to enter. Everyone is welcome!

The deadline for entries is 4 April, so time to get creative!

During the French lockdown to fight the Coronavirus last spring, we were constrained to stop broadcasting Paris Live, our afternoon news broadcast.

In the meanwhile, we are focusing on our digital presence, and making our website the best! You can read breaking news articles on our site, as well as in-depth analysis of current affairs, both in France and across the globe.

We are also developing new and exciting podcasts for you. There's Paris Perspective, Africa Calling, Spotlight on France, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have a bilingual series - an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.

As you see, sound is still quite present at the RFI English service!  Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our excellent staff of journalists.

Send me your music requests! I'll make programmes of your favourite music when I can't be in the kitchen to cook up something new for you … write to me at [email protected]

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Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is [email protected]   If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

RFI Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni ([email protected]) from our Listener Relations department on all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me ([email protected]) when you write to them so that I know what is going on, too. N.B. You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

And don't forget, there is a Facebook page just for you, the RFI English Clubs. Only members of RFI English Clubs can belong to this group page, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven't yet asked to join the group, and you are a member of an independent, officially recognised RFI English Club, go to the Facebook link above and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! (if you do not answer the questions, I click “decline”).

There's a Facebook page for members of the general RFI Listeners Club, too. Just click on the link and fill out the questionnaire, and you can connect with your fellow Club members around the world. Be sure you include your RFI Listeners Club membership number (most of them begin with an A, followed by a number) in the questionnaire, or I will have to click “Decline”, which I don't like to do!

Welcome to our new RFI Listeners Club members! From Bangladesh, there's Gias Uddin Ahamad of Kishoreganj; Jannatul Ferdoush Lameya and Atikul Islam are both from Dhaka. From Chimboto, Peru, we welcome Cesar Perez Dioses.

So glad you have joined us Gias, Jannatul, Atiku, and Cesar!

You too can be a member of the RFI Listeners Club – just write to me at [email protected] and tell me you want to join, and I'll send you a membership number. It's that easy. When you win a Sound Kitchen quiz as an RFI Listeners Club member, you receive a premium prize.

This week's quiz: On 23 January, I asked you a question about the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who had just come back to Russia that week from Germany where he had been recovering from a near-fatal poisoning. You were to write in with the name of the nerve agent with which he was poisoned, and the name of the person who is suspected to have ordered the poisoning.

The answer is: Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent called “Novichok” – which means “New Guy” in Russian. It's a potent neurotoxin that was developed in the Soviet Union and Russia in the 1980s and 90s. It can be delivered as a liquid, powder, or an aerosol, and is said to be more lethal than other nerve agents.

Novichok causes muscle spasms that can stop the heart, it can build up fluid in the lungs – also deadly - and it can damage other organs and nerve cells. As the New York Times reported: “Russia has produced several versions of Novichok, and it is anyone's guess how often they have actually been used, experts say, because the resulting deaths can easily escape scrutiny, appearing like nothing more sinister than a fatal heart attack.”

Such an agent is available only to state forces, according to analysts.

Remember the case of Sergei V Skripal and his daughter, in 2018? Skripal was a former Russian spy living in England who was found barely conscious in a park, and there was no obvious reason to suspect poisoning — except that his daughter was with him and was suffering the same symptoms. It was soon discovered that Novichok had been smeared on the handle of the front door of their house, and as the investigation advanced, the British government accused Russia of attempted murder. (Skripal and his daughter both survived).

Well, so it went for Alexei Navalny, who was fortunate enough to be flown to Berlin for treatment. He survived too; he went back to Moscow on 18 January after five months spent recovering in Germany. As soon as he landed, he was detained and immediately put in detention pending another hearing on charges of violating the terms of a three-and-a-half-year suspended prison sentence he received in 2014 on various corruption charges – which the European Court of Human Rights had debunked as “arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable.”

Navalny's trial outcome was as predicted: he has been sentenced to two years and 8 months in prison.

So who is allegedly behind the poisoning? All evidence suggests the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, or the FSB. The FSB is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB. Who runs the FSB?  According to a 1995 Russian Federal Law, the direction of the FSB is executed by the president of Russia – i.e., Vladimir Putin.

During his trial, Alexei Navalny said: “Mr Putin will go down in history as nothing but a poisoner.”

The winners are: Raihan Ali, who's a member of the Nilshagor RFI Fan Club in Nilphamari, Bangladesh, and RFI Club members Mr S J Agboola from Ekiti State Nigeria; Zenon Teles, from the Christian – Marxist - Leninist - Maoist Association of Listening DX-ers in Goa, India, and Zillur Rahman from Sunamganj, Bangladesh. Last but not least, listener Mervin Kensington from Windhoek, Namibia.

Congratulations winners!
Here's the music you heard on this week's program: “Bangladeshi Folk Instrumental” by Piaru Khan, performed by the Pradeep Bhattacherjee Ensemble; “Dance of the Knights” from Sergei Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “Happy Birthday”, written and performed by Stevie Wonder; “Waltz-scherzo”, “Hurdy-gurdy” and “Dance” from Dance of the Little Dolls by Dmitri Shostakovich, performed by Lubov Timofeeva, and “Ora amar mukher bhasha kaira nite chay” by Abdul Latif, sung by Somobeto.

Do you have a musical request? Send it to [email protected]

This week's question ... You'll have to listen to the show to participate. You have until 15 March to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 20 March podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address in with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:
[email protected]
or
Susan Owensby
RFI – The Sound Kitchen
80, rue Camille Desmoulins
92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux
France
or
By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country's international access code, or “ + ”, then 33 6 31 12 96 82. Don't forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or to form your own official RFI Club, click here