Widow of Alexei Navalny takes center stage in Russia’s opposition

MOSCOW — Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of slain opposition chief Alexei Navalny, has introduced she is going to proceed her husband’s work selling democratic change in Russia.

“I’ve no proper to surrender. I’ll proceed the work of Alexei Navalny,” mentioned Navalnaya, 47, in an emotional video posted to the YouTube channel of her late husband.

“I’ll proceed to battle for our nation and I urge you to face subsequent to me,” she added forcefully.

In saying her new function, Navalnaya made clear she blames Russian President Vladimir Putin for the demise of her husband in a distant Russian jail colony Friday underneath unclear circumstances.

“There ought to have been one other individual in my place, however this individual was killed by Vladimir Putin,” she mentioned.

Navalnaya’s announcement got here as she was as a consequence of attend a gathering of European Union overseas ministers in Brussels – the place the subject of extra sanctions on the Kremlin chief over complicity in Navalny’s demise was anticipated to be mentioned.

It additionally got here as Russian authorities continued to forestall Navalny’s household from getting access to his physique — a transfer that Navalnaya mentioned was meant to cowl up proof of against the law.

Navalnaya mentioned her husband’s investigative group was at work figuring out the reason for demise and to disclose the id of all these implicated in what she insists was his homicide.

“We won’t solely reveal [the murderers’] names, however present you their faces,” mentioned Navalnaya.

Navalnaya was usually a fixture at her husband’s aspect all through his profession in opposition politics — not solely when Navalny gave speeches, however as he endured arrests, legal trials, poisonings and bodily assaults.

A Russian gossip tabloid labeled her “the primary girl of the opposition” in 2021 — a mirrored image of rising consideration to Navalny’s rising fame and Navalnaya’s glamour and magnificence. In actuality, she was at all times extra: Navalny’s closest buddy and advisor.

Navalnya was born Yulia Abrosimova in Moscow in 1976. In keeping with Russian media studies, her father was a analysis scientist and her mom was employed on the Soviet central financial planning company, Gosplan.

Abrosimova later earned a level in economics on the prestigious Plekhanov Russian College of Economics in Moscow and commenced a profession in banking.

But her life and profession took a flip when she met a younger lawyer named Alexei Navalny whereas on trip in Turkey in 1998.

Navalny was smitten as Abrosimova casually dropped the names of all authorities ministers throughout their conversations about life in Russia, based on press studies.

Two years later they had been married and on their method to having two kids.

“I did not marry him as a result of he was a promising lawyer and I did not marry him for being an opposition chief,” mentioned Navalnaya in a 2020 interview.

“I married a younger man named Alexei — an individual with whom, from the very starting, it was clear that there can be robust moments in life,” she added.

“And for that purpose, nothing surprising has ever occurred.”

And but along with her husband now gone, Navalnaya is clearly setting out on her personal surprising trajectory: urging Russians to affix her in combating the Kremlin to reclaim their nation.

“Putin not solely killed the person referred to as Alexei Navalny,” she mentioned, “he additionally wished to kill our hopes, our freedom and our future.”