8:16 a.m. ET, February 19, 2024
Who is Yulia Navalnaya, who has vowed to carry on her husband's legacy?
By CNN contributor Yulia Navalnaya at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on September 28, 2022. Stephanie Lecocq/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
After her husband's death, Yulia Navalnaya made a promise: She will not be deterred by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Alexey Navalny died on Friday in a Russian prison north of the Arctic Circle after being arrested upon his return to Russia in 2021. On Monday, Navalnaya vowed to carry on her late husband's legacy, saying: “No one but ourselves will protect us.”
In the spotlight: While she is now at the center of her husband's fight, Navalnaya has largely avoided the spotlight.
The couple met shortly after Yulia, a Moscow native, graduated from Plekhanov Economic University, where she studied international relations. She worked in a bank before leaving to look after her eldest daughter Darya.
After returning from maternity leave, Navalnaya helped her in-laws sell furniture for several years, but after the birth of her son Zakhar – and with Navalny increasingly in the spotlight – she decided to focus solely on the family.
However, the opposition leader fell seriously ill in August 2020 on a flight back 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 seriously ill.
As Navalny lay in a coma in a clinic in Omsk, Navalnaya suddenly became the center of attention – and her image of a stoic, calm and collected woman became a story in her own right. Navalnaya risked arrest when she took part in protests calling for her husband's release, helping to put public and international pressure on the Russian government.
Independent Russian media compared her to former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama, and her supporters wondered whether she would one day lead the country's opposition movement. On Instagram, supporters called her “the first lady” because she risked arrest in protest for her husband’s release.
No surrender: Now a more defiant symbol than ever of Navalny's cause, Navalny has vowed to 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 stays and tells me I have no right to surrender,” she posted on Monday.