After the death of Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, many desperate Russians are now looking hopefully to his wife Yulia Navalnaya. Will she follow in her husband’s political footsteps?
Julia Navalnaya is visibly struggling to keep her composure as she takes the stage at the Munich Security Conference. Surely everyone has already heard the terrible news about her husband, the imprisoned Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, she says. At this point on Friday afternoon, Navalnaya still has no final certainty that Alexei is really dead.
“But if it is actually true, then I want (Vladimir) Putin and those around him, Putin’s friends, his government, to know that they have to answer for what they have done to our country, to my family and to my husband,” says the 47-year-old. The people in the hall applaud her standing. Later, the video of the speech, which lasted around two minutes, went viral on the Internet. Navalnaya becomes a symbol of strength and almost unimaginable self-control – and a bearer of hope.
The first news of Navalny’s death on Friday and confirmation by his team on Saturday shocked critical Russians. The fact that Navalny’s mother Lyudmila and his lawyer have now spent many hours driving to the prison camp in the far north of Russia and still cannot find the body only makes many more stunned. “The sun has set,” writes Russian sociologist Grigori Yudin in a guest article for the Kremlin-critical portal “Meduza.”
Many people find similarly desperate words on social networks. At times it seems as if not only has Navalny died, but also the confidence of many opposition Russians that something will change for the better in their country in the foreseeable future. For all his popularity, Navalny was also a controversial politician. But in Putin’s increasingly repressive Russia, he has recently been a great source of encouragement for them – even if they did not all share his political views. Despite hundreds of arrests, people in numerous Russian cities dared to take to the streets over the weekend to leave flowers for Navalny.
Navalny leaves behind two children
In all the sadness, many eyes are now turning to Navalnaya, who has so tragically become a widow. The economist and her husband met around 25 years ago while on holiday in Turkey. Julia later describes Alexei as her “true love” and “best friend” at the same time. A few days before his death, he had his team publish a photo together on Instagram on Valentine’s Day. The two of them are now thousands of kilometers apart, he writes, but: “I feel that you are with me every second and I love you more and more.” Navalny also leaves behind two children: 23-year-old Darja, who is studying in the USA, and son Sachar, 15 years old.
Until Alexei’s imprisonment, the Navalnys often appeared as a team. Julia and the children are at the politician’s side when he barely survives a poison attack in 2020, for which he personally blames Putin and from which he recovers in Germany after weeks of coma. At the beginning of 2021, Julia Navalnaya and her husband are flying back to Moscow, where he is arrested at the airport.
She later took to the streets with thousands of other Russians to demonstrate – in vain – for his release from the prison camp. Daughter Darja also repeatedly appears in public, accepts international awards on behalf of her father and will write a guest article for the renowned “Time Magazine” in 2022. Both women also accepted the Oscar together in Los Angeles last year, which was awarded to the documentary “Nawalny”.
Julia and Darja as new guiding stars
Some are now relying on Yulia and Darja as the new guiding stars of the Russian opposition. “There is nothing stronger in the world than a mother and daughter fighting against the system because of the death of a husband and father,” writes the well-known women’s rights activist Alyona Popova, for example Instagram.
The political scientist Tatjana Stanovaya predicts that the Russian power apparatus will continue to “ignore and cover up” Navalny’s death as best it can and suppress any expressions of sympathy for the opposition figure. The situation is definitely risky for the Kremlin, she explains: “The authorities must make efforts to ensure that today’s shock (…) does not develop into a political movement,” she writes. “So far, Putin and war opponents have sat pragmatically silent and understood the futility of protests. Now emotions could play a role.” With regard to Navalnaya, Stanovaya is certain: “Julia Navalnaya will become a political figure, whether she wants it or not. Her words now have special meaning and weight within the opposition environment (…). She has to manage this resource. “
Meeting with refugee opposition leader
It remains to be seen whether Navalnaya will really become more prominent as a politician in the future. However, there was a first indication that she might be planning to do this herself on Friday evening: a few hours after the news of her husband’s death, she met with the Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanowskaya, who had fled into exile.
What this is about is not known. Tichanowskaja later only published two photos and a video without sound on Telegram. The now 41-year-old Belarusian ran in the presidential election in her home country in the summer of 2020 against the authoritarian long-term ruler Alexander Lukashenko – instead of her husband Sergei, who is still imprisoned today. Now she is considered the leader of the Belarusian opposition.
Meanwhile, an excerpt from the “Navalny” documentary is being shared among Russian opponents of the regime on social networks: Shortly before his return to Russia in 2021 – when he is currently recovering from the assassination attempt on him – Navalny is asked what he wants to say to the Russian people I wanted to give him the opportunity to do so in case he was actually killed one day. The Kremlin opponent smiles and replies: “In the event that I am killed, my message is very simple: Don’t give up!” With her appearance in Munich and her declaration of war on Putin there, Navalnaya has already impressively proven that she has not given up.