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This Week: 

Don't miss the premiere of Navalny this Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.

Plus, new shows on CNN+ like The Murdochs and The Wonder List. 

WATCH: Listen to Alexey Navalny's first words after the poisoning

Putin's biggest threat: Who is Alexey Navalny?

The new CNN Film Navalny is premiering this Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on CNN and CNN+ and you're not going to want to miss it. The thrilling fly-on-the-wall documentary follows Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critics.

Read below to find out more about his story: 

 

The early 2000s ➡

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny rose to prominence by organizing protests and exposing corruption in the Russian government on social media.

➡ August 2020 ➡

Navalny nearly died when he was poisoned. He fell ill from exposure to military-grade nerve agent Novichok on a plane heading from Siberia to Moscow.

➡ December 2020 ➡

After investigating the people behind the poisoning, Navalny tricked a Russian agent into revealing the plot. The agent said the lethal chemical was planted in Navalny’s underpants and described the cleanup operation.

➡ January 2021 ➡

After recovering from the poisoning in Germany, Navalny returned to Russia and was immediately detained. He was sentenced to more than 2.5 years in prison for violating his probation, a verdict he said was politically motivated.

➡ March 2022 ➡

Navalny was sentenced to nine years in a maximum-security jail, according to Russian state-owned news agency Tass. He was convicted of fraud over allegations that he stole from his Anti-Corruption Foundation. His sentence sparked protests across Russia. 

➡ April 2022 

While in prison, Navalny has denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine via social media, advocating for anti-war protests across the country as “the backbone of the movement against war and death,” according to Reuters.

Don't miss Navalny premiering this Sunday, April 24, at 9 p.m. ET on CNN and also available the same day on CNN+. Click here to watch the trailer.

Stranger than fiction: Meet the Murdoch family in the new CNN series The Murdochs: Empire of Influence

If you're a fan of Succession, you might know the storyline of the show is loosely based on the Murdoch family, led by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. In many ways, the Murdochs' story is even wilder than the fictional Roys'. The CNN Original Series The Murdochs: Empire of Influence takes you inside the Murdoch family. Take a look at who's who below: 

Patriarch

Rupert Murdoch - Australian-born Rupert Murdoch, 91, is the media magnate who grew the small newspaper company he inherited from his father in 1952 into News Corporation, Ltd., a multi-billion dollar global media empire. At different points, the conglomerate has included the newspapers News of the World, the Sun, the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal; Twentieth Century Fox film studio; the Fox Broadcasting network; Fox News Channel; HarperCollins publishing and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

 

Murdoch has been married four times and fathered six children over the course of his seven-decades-long career. Several of Murdoch's children have followed him into the family business.

 

Potential Heirs

Lachlan Murdoch - Lachlan Murdoch, 50, is Rupert Murdoch's oldest son with his second wife, Anna. He began learning the family business at a young age through internships at his father's media outlets. He rose quickly through the executive ranks and by 1997 had become chairman and chief executive of News Ltd. At the time, his father described Lachlan as his heir apparent, "the first among equals." 

 

James Murdoch - James Murdoch, 49, is Rupert Murdoch's fourth child and second son with Anna. James' early career was at odds with his father's conservative newspaper empire. He dropped out of Harvard in 1995 to start his own hip-hop record label, Rawkus Records. After several years, he transitioned into executive roles within News Corp and assumed the role of a corporate company man.

 

Elisabeth Murdoch - Elisabeth Murdoch, 53, is Rupert Murdoch's second child and the first he had with Anna. Elisabeth began her training in the family business early with internships and entry-level jobs at Murdoch properties. In 1996 she became managing director of Sky Networks at BSkyB. But several years later she was passed over for the role of Chief Executive at Sky. 

 

You can find out more about the Murdoch family and their battle for the media empire here. 

 

You can stream The Murdochs: Empire of Influence in its entirety right now on CNN+. 

WATCH: Skiing in Hawaii? Bill Weir explores the island peak

Bill Weir is back exploring more extraordinary places

Just in time for Earth Day, there's an all-new season of The Wonder List with Bill Weir dropping on CNN+ this Thursday, April 21.

 

Follow CNN's Chief Climate Correspondent as he heads to the beautiful mountains, lakes and plains of Montana where a modern-day land rush and a quest to turn back time is pitting neighbor against neighbor; to Greenland, where the rapidly melting ice is changing the island’s landscapes and prospects forever, forcing locals all to confront an uncertain future; to Charleston, South Carolina, where rising seas and fierce floods threaten one of America’s most charming and storied cities; and to Hawaii, where the battle to balance the need for tourism against the fragile beauty of the natural world has reached a critical stage. 

 

And don't forget to revisit all the great episodes from the first 3 seasons of The Wonder List available right now on CNN+. 

We hope you're hungry because Searching for Italy and Nomad premiere on May 1

Just announced: Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy and Nomad with Carlton McCoy will now premiere on Sunday, May 1, at 9 and 10 p.m. Get ready for delicious meals, great conversations and lots of travel envy.