(NewsNation) — Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russian opposition leader Alexi Navalny has vowed to continue her husband’s work after he died while in a Russian prison. But who is Navalnaya?
Yulia Navalnaya’s background
Navalnaya has previously denied any interest in joining her husband in politics as he worked to promote democracy and opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Born Yulia Borisovna Abrosimova in what was then the Soviet Union, Navalnaya studied to be an economist.
However, she gave up a career in banking and became a stay-at-home mother after she and Navalny had their first of two children, Dasha.
Yulia and Alexei Navalny’s relationship
The couple met in 1998 while on vacation in Turkey and got married two years later. At that time, Navalny was not an opposition leader or well-known figure in Russian politics.
While her husband became more well known, Navalnaya avoided the public eye though she was also a member of the liberal party Yabloko. She would appear in public with Navalny, who often spoke about his family in public and on social media, but rarely spoke out.
Some close to the couple described their connection as deep and almost telepathic. The couple’s devotion to each other was in contrast to Putin, who divorced his wife of 30 years.
In her video statement, Navalnaya said: “By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me, half of my heart and half of my soul.”
Navalnaya began taking a larger role in 2020 after her husband was poisoned with a nerve gas.
Yulia Navalnaya’s future
Navalnaya has said in the past she wasn’t interested in her own political career or following the path of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who became an opposition leader in Belarus after her husband was jailed.
In a recent video, however, Navalnaya vowed to continue Navalny’s work after he died in an Arctic penal colony. She accused Putin of killing her husband and said authorities were refusing to hand his body over to his mother to cover up his killing.
She urged Russians to rally behind her “to share not only the grief and endless pain that has enveloped and gripped us, but also my rage.”
She continued: “The main thing that we can do for Alexei and ourselves is to keep fighting. … We all need to get together in one strong fist and strike that mad regime.”
Navalnaya has been out of Russia, beyond the reach of Putin and the Kremlin, recently meeting with European Union members in Belgium. Should she return to Russia, she, like her husband, would likely face arrest.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
