Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, emerged this Monday as a new figure of Russian dissidents with her own voice. Navalnaya has assured that she will continue her husband's fight to achieve a democratic and free Russia. “I ask you to share the anger with me. Rage, anger, hatred towards those who dared to kill our future,” the woman urged in a video broadcast on social networks in which she cried out against the Russian regime, which she blames for the death of her husband, the opponent of Vladimir Putin, best known abroad and one of the loudest voices on the rot of Russian autocracy.
Navalny's death, announced by the Russian authorities on Friday in a remote and harsh penal colony in the Arctic Circle where he was serving a sentence considered by the West as political, has left a huge hole in the Russian opposition.
In her nine-minute video message, Navalnaya, 47, directly blamed Putin for her husband's death. “I want to live in a free Russia, I want to build a free Russia,” stated the dissident's widow in the recording titled I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny. This Monday He met in Brussels with the Foreign Ministers, with the High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, Josep Borrell, and with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. He has also informed them that he will follow in the footsteps of the opponent, who became known years ago for his investigations into the corruption of the Russian elites and earned a good number of enemies. “Navalni has been slowly murdered by the Putin regime,” said Borrell
Navalnaya has been a cornerstone for the anti-corruption and political activism campaign of her husband, arrested in 2021 upon returning to Russia from Germany, where he had recovered from a very serious poison attack perpetrated by the Russian secret services in the summer of 2020. Until her husband's death she had evaded all calls to enter politics, but now she is taking a step forward. She does so at a key moment for dissent, which she feels increasingly discouraged. This is how it is inside Russia, where it is extremely dangerous to protest and demonstrate – as has been seen with the arrests of those who participated in the small tributes to Navalni – and where there is not even a hint of real opposition with possibilities, and also outside the country.
The widow of the charismatic opponent now faces a major challenge: assuming her husband's legacy at the head of his organization. The woman, an economist by training, will have to decide if she forges her own political identity; If that's the case, it's anyone's guess as to whether she'll make it. Furthermore, her role outside of Russia can be viewed in a negative way. The Kremlin constantly cries out against the “collective West” and exile can work against it to reach a large part of the Russian citizenry. In fact, that was one of the factors that led Navalny to return to Moscow in 2021, despite the fact that she was aware of the risk she ran.
Prison, death or exile
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Putin's dissidents are in prison – like the liberals Vladimir Kara-Murza or Ilya Yashin -, dead or in exile. And outside the country the opposition remains fragmented. There are names like former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky or chess champion Gari Kasparov, and there is Navalny's team, which had built an enormous network of activists in almost all of Russia, but in recent times, with its leader in prison and his impracticable activity in Russia, was more subdued in his exile in Lithuania. After the Navalny tragedy, Khodorkovsky has spoken of creating some type of alliance that brings together all dissidents against Putin.
Meanwhile, the West has reacted with verbal forcefulness to the death of the opponent. But at the moment the EU's room for maneuver is limited. The head of European diplomacy has proposed to his counterparts in the Member States to rename the sanctions regime for violations of human rights with the name of Navalny, in tribute to the opponent, and a new package of restrictions is being considered aimed at those directly responsible. of the dissident's death. “We have to send a message of support to the Russian opposition, so on both fronts, the political and the military, we have to continue our support for Ukraine and the Russian people who want to live in freedom,” Borrell said this Monday. Spain has also already summoned the Russian ambassador in Madrid, Yuri Klimenko, according to diplomatic sources.
“By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me: half of my heart and half of my soul,” Navalnaya said in the video. “But I still have the other half, and he tells me I have no right to give up. I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny; I will continue fighting for our country,” said the dissident's widow. “I urge you to be by my side,” claimed the woman, who stressed that the only response to the crime is to continue the work of her late husband for a free and prosperous Russia. The dissident's family has not even managed to recover his body.
Russians, Navalnaya has said, want to live differently, even if there seems to be little hope. “I know it seems impossible to do more, but we have to do it: unite in a strong fist and hit with it this mad regime, Putin, his friends and his uniformed bandits, these thieves and murderers who have paralyzed our country,” Navalnaya launched in her moving video speech, with the same message that she conveyed to the EU.
The Kremlin has denied its involvement in the opponent's death. And he has declared that claims in the West that Putin was responsible are unacceptable. The Russian president, who is preparing to be head of the Kremlin again with an unrivaled vote in March, has warned that he will respond if there is any type of interference in the supposed presidential elections.
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