“Hi, it’s Navalnaya.” It is with these words that Yulia Navalnaya announced that she was taking up the torch of her late husband’s anti-corruption activism, in a video published on the YouTube channel to its 6.3 million subscribers. We find in his message the same gimmicks at the start of videos and the same verve as Alexeï Navalny, who died in prison on February 16. His speech has been viewed millions of times and, for some, resurrects the hopes that vanished after the death of Vladimir Putin’s main opponent.
In this eight-minute video, where emotion still makes her voice tremble, Yulia Navalnaya warns that she will not abandon the fight for the “beautiful Russia of the future”, her husband’s credo, “even if Putin killed half of his heart and half of his soul. She promises an investigation into the circumstances of the death of the activist, whose body has still not been returned to the family. “We know exactly why Putin killed Navalny. We will talk about it later, when we know exactly how they committed this murder,” she assures.
Since the Munich conference, where Yulia Navalnya spoke on February 16, just after the announcement of her husband’s death, everything has accelerated for her: opening an account on European ministers then American President Joe Biden on February 22… The widow is preparing to now take center stage, with the support of the teams from the Anticorruption Foundation (the activist NGO founded by Alexeï Navalny). At the Council of the European Union, she formulated her first demands: recognize the presidential election of March 15 in Russia as illegitimate, introduce sanctions against Putin’s proxies, and protect Russians who have fled their country.
Political career
The choice to continue her husband’s fight was very well received in Russian opposition circles, which seem to have forgotten their divisions since the death of the Kremlin’s number one opponent. “Youlïa is very respected within the opposition,” explains Sergei Guriev, Russian economist and director of studies at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, who knew the Navalny couple well.
As proof, the most famous dissidents each published a message of support for Youlïa Navalnaya. Former MP Dmitri Goudkov, now in exile in Cyprus, wished her “strength and patience”, assuring her that “she could always count on him”. “If she decides to engage in politics, then I will certainly support her,” declared Mikhail Khodorkovsky in turn, showing himself in favor of a coalition of opposition groups with “Youlia as one of the leaders”. Finally, the sulphurous blogger Maxim Katz, long at odds with Alexei Navalny’s teams, announced: “The Russian opposition today has a new leader.”
“I don’t think she will participate in all the events of other Russian opponents in exile,” however, believes Fyodor Krasheninnikov, of the Free Russia foundation in Brussels, and who knew the Navalny couple. It has its own position, its own movement, and great legitimacy.” The coalition of Russian opponents abroad intends to continue its efforts to influence Russian politics from within. On the occasion of the presidential election of March 15 to 17, she called on those who vote against Putin to all go to the polling stations at noon, in order to legally and safely protest against this simulacrum of democracy.
More radical than Alexeï Navalny
Aged 47, an economist by training, Ioulïa Navalnaya met Alexeï Navalny during a vacation in Turkey, at the age of 22. From their marriage two children were born, Daria, 22, who has already spoken out publicly against Vladimir Putin, and Zakhar, 15. Politics is a family affair for the Navalnys: “Youlia Navalnaya was always involved in Alexei’s work,” says Sergei Guriev. “He always discussed his political strategy with her and relied on her advice.”
Described as very reserved, she privately shares the same irony as her husband, who, until the last days of his life, made fun of her status as a political prisoner. In a Instagram post published at the end of January 2021, she joked about her arrest: “Sorry for the poor quality of the photo, the light is never good in police vans”.
She will no longer use this dry sense of humor in public from now on. Her response to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov, who did not wish to comment on Navalny’s death, says it all: “I do not comment on the statements of a killer,” she scathed. “She is clearly not ready to joke,” explains Fyodor Krasheninnikov. “In politics, she chooses a different tone.” His register could be more radical than that of Alexeï Navalny. “She was much more negative towards Vladimir Putin than Alexei,” remembers Sergei Guriev. “And that’s understandable: he tortured her husband.”
Find your audience
Exiled abroad with her children, Yulia Navalnaya will not return to Russia as Alexei Navalny did in 2021, and will represent an additional voice of the opposition in exile. More consensual than Alexeï Navalny – he was close to nationalist circles at the start of his career – this figure enjoys an impeccable reputation among Westerners.
This then led to her being violently caricatured by Kremlin propagandists, who accused her of being a “puppet of the West”. Worse, some imagine a new life for her with a lover, and think that she is rejoicing in her fate. “His wife can’t help but smile at the Munich conference, a few hours after the announcement of the tragic death of Alexeï Navalny. She prefers the applause”, writing the pro-Putin Telegram channel Loguika Markova. Even Dmitry Medvedev, former president and prime minister of Russia, stooped to such criticism: “I have the impression that she has been waiting for this moment [la mort de Navalny, NDLR] all his life, to be able to build his political project…”
The authorities fear that she will become a new icon of resistance, although “she still remains unknown to non-politicized Russians”, believes Sergei Guriev. Alexeï Navalny’s popularity was built on his ability to find new methods of political communications and to make himself heard beyond the liberal spheres already committed to the anti-Putinian cause. However, regarding Yulia Navalnaya, “her current audience is mainly made up of the European and American ruling classes, and Russian politicians exiled abroad”, analysis Russian political scientist Ekaterina Schulman in a program on the opposition channel Dojd TV. “However, this could change, because for an ordinary Russian, her story is very understandable: a woman who fights for her martyred husband,” analyzes Sergei Guriev. It remains to be seen whether Yulia Navalnaya can conquer the heart of deep Russia.
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