8:16 a.m. ET, February 19, 2024
Who is Yulia Navalnaya, who has vowed to continue her husband’s legacy?
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Following the death of her husband, Yulia Navalnaya has made a promise: She will not be deterred by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The couple met shortly after Yulia, a Moscow native, graduated from Plekhanov University of Economics, where she studied international relations. She worked in a bank before leaving to care for their eldest daughter, Darya.
Returning from maternity leave, Navalnaya helped her parents-in-law sell furniture for a few years, but after their son, Zakhar, was born – and with Navalny increasingly in the spotlight – she decided to focus solely on the family.
However, the opposition leader fell gravely ill in August 2020 while on a return flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk. The pilot made an emergency landing in Omsk, where Navalny was taken to hospital for urgent treatment before being transferred to Germany, still critically ill.
Independent Russian media outlets compared her to former US First Lady Michelle Obama, and supporters wondered if the day would come when she would lead the country’s opposition movement. On Instagram, supporters dubbed her “the First Lady” for risking arrest to protest for her husband’s release.
No surrender: Now a more defiant symbol than ever for Navalny’s cause, Navalnaya has promised she will continue his fight for a democratic Russian government.
“Putin killed half of me, half of my heart and half of my soul. But the other half of me remains and it tells me that I don’t have the right to surrender,” she posted on Monday.
David Turner is a globe-trotting journalist who brings a global perspective to our readers. With a commitment to shedding light on international events, he explores complex geopolitical issues, offering a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.