Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has announced her intention to become the president of Russia after President Vladimir Putin's regime comes to an end. In an interview with the BBC, Navalnaya expressed her determination to continue her husband's fight for democracy. “I will participate in the elections… as a candidate. My political opponent is Vladimir Putin. And I will do everything to make his regime fall as soon as possible,” she said.
However, for now, her fight remains in exile, for returning to Russia could lead to her arrest on charges of extremism. She told the BBC that she cannot return as long as Putin remains in power.
Alexei Navalny died under suspicious circumstances in a penal colony after being sentenced to 19 years on "politically motivated" charges. His pursuit of exposing government corruption, particularly through his Anti-Corruption Foundation, made him Putin's most outspoken critic. While Russia denied involvement in Alexei Navalny's death, US President Joe Biden expressed certainty that Putin was responsible.
Since her husband's death, Yulia Navalnaya said their shared political beliefs and decisions have affected their children, Dasha, 23, and Zakhar, 16. “I realise that they didn't have a say in this,” she said.
The Navalnys were united in their determination to challenge Putin's grip on power, despite knowing the risks. In 2021, after surviving a poisoning with Novichok, a nerve agent, Alexei Navalny returned to Russia, where he was detained. Yulia, in her BBC interview, mentioned the extent of her husband's suffering in prison, including spending 295 days in solitary confinement. “Usually, the normal practice is banishment just for two weeks and it's the most severe punishment. My husband spent there almost one year,” she said.
Navalnaya has criticised the international community's response to her husband's death, calling the sanctions imposed on Russian officials “a joke” and urging world leaders to be “a little less afraid” of Putin. She expressed a personal desire to see the Russian president face justice, saying, “I want him to be in a Russian prison. And it's not just that — I want him to be in the same conditions like Alexei was.”
Yulia Navalnaya now leads the Anti-Corruption Foundation, where she plans to release further evidence implicating the Putin regime.
Alexei Navalny began writing his memoir, Patriot, while recuperating in the German countryside after being poisoned with Novichok. Upon his return to Russia and subsequent imprisonment, he continued to document his thoughts and experiences through notebook entries, social media posts and prison diaries, many of which are being published for the first time.
Navalny reported that some of his writings were confiscated by prison officials. Patriot is both illuminating and harrowing — knowing the tragic outcome of Alexei Navalny's story makes his accounts of mistreatment and his resistance resonate with even greater impact.
Yulia recounts her final conversations with her husband, where they both acknowledged the likelihood that he would never leave prison alive. “I never let my brain think that he might be killed,” she said. But Alexei's humour and laughter remained intact until the end, a trait Yulia calls his “superpower.”
“He really, truly laughed at this regime and at Vladimir Putin. That's why Vladimir Putin hated him so much,” she said.
