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Yulia Navalnaya usually avoided the cameras and stayed in the background with her husband He became Russia’s most prominent opposition figure and President Vladimir Putin’s greatest foe.
But after the death of Alexei Navalny in prisonLast week, he took to a forum in Munich usually reserved for high-level politicians and promised that Putin and his associates would be brought to justice for his death.
Afterwards he solemnly swore: “I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny.”
This was an ambitious statement from a woman who once said in an interview with the Russian edition Harper’s Bazaar Their “main function” was to take care of the couple’s children and the household. Navalnya’s new task will be to lead the Russian opposition through one of the darkest and most turbulent times in its history.
The opposition is fragmented and Navalny’s death has dealt a huge blow., The question now is whether Navalny can rally her husband’s forces and work with other opposition groups to mount some kind of successful challenge to Putin, who will serve six more years in the Kremlin after March’s presidential election. On the way to do.
Putin has increasingly repressed freedom of expression and dissent within Russia, imprisoning opponents and critics.
Navalnaya has experience in confronting Putin. She and Navalny were married for more than 20 years, and she remained by his side as he helped lead the largest protests in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union and during his subsequent prison sentence.
She has accused Putin of murdering her husband – a suggestion Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “baseless” And “insolent,
Navalny’s life was in danger “discussed in detail” with his wife and close team in 2021 before returning to Russia from Germany, where he was treated for nerve agent poisoning, said Vladimir Ashurkov, a longtime friend of the couple and co-founder of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation.
Still, it was “a great decision” for Navalnya to continue her husband’s work, she said.
In their marriage, she was the “rock” Navalny depended on. There was an “agreement” between them that Navalny would not be politically active and would stay out of the limelight, Ashurkov said.
Analysts suggest that Navalny returned to Russia from Germany because he knew it would be difficult to be recognized as a legitimate opposition leader abroad.
His widow is unlikely to travel to Russia due to security reasons, and now faces a similar dilemma to resolve. How to lead your husband’s organization from exile.
On Friday, shortly after news of Navalny’s death broke, he met a woman in a similar situation: Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Tsikhanouskaya takes over political reins from her husband, the Belarusian opposition leader Siarhi tsikhanouskyIn 2020, after being jailed for the Belarusian presidential election.
She ran a successful campaign, but fled Belarus after President Alexander Lukashenko Declared himself the winner in an election widely considered fraudulent in the West.
Tsikhanouskaya said of Navalnaya, “We understood each other without words.” Tsikhanouskaya said she had no information about her husband’s condition – whether he was alive or dead.
“It’s very difficult when you feel such great pain, but you… Give interviews to encourage the democratic world to take decisive actionTsikhanouskaya said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Tsikhanouskaya, who has been operating from abroad for nearly four years, said living in political exile has been a challenge. Is “It is very important not to lose connection with the people in the country” He added.
This will be difficult, especially within Russia, where most Russians still get their news only from Kremlin-controlled state media.
Although he was Russia’s best-known opposition leader – charismatic and jokey even while serving a 19-year prison sentence – Navalny almost never appeared on state television, with his death only briefly mentioned.
The Kremlin is likely to take the same approach with Navalny, effectively isolating him from the Russian people through a state-backed information blockade.
Russian state television experts have already tried to discredit him: They suggested that she wore too much makeup and that, in accordance with Russian Orthodox tradition, she should have covered her hair in mourning for Navalny.
Social media posts disparaging Navalnya and her relationship with her husband appeared almost simultaneously on accounts run by Russian state media, as well as on other accounts with no apparent ties to the Kremlin, which have long promoted Russian propaganda. Has given, according to a London newspaper. Based non-profit organization that studies online propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation.
Ever since Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine, the scope for dissent in Russia has further diminished., Russian authorities have tightened restrictions on freedom of expression and jailed critics, often civilians, sometimes for decades. Hundreds of people who left flowers in memory of Navalny have been detained and it will be almost impossible to persuade Russians to take a collective public stance against Putin.
Navalnaya has been in the headlines since her husband’s death. Your challenge will be to “stay relevant” That’s when interest inevitably wanes, said Graeme Robertson, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of a book on Putin and contemporary Russian politics.
Robertson suggested he could do this by supporting Navalny’s volunteers and political networks in Russia to keep him “underground but alive” while also choosing a goal to focus on in the short term.
Arriving at a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Monday, Navalny wasted no time in demonstrating what that goal might be — and his leadership of Navalny’s organization.
Sitting next to the EU’s foreign policy chief, he called on Western leaders not to recognize the results of the March presidential election, sanctioning more people in Putin’s circle and To do more to help Russians who fled abroad.
Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation made headlines in Western and independent Russian outlets in recent years with a series of clever videos that turned an otherwise languid corruption investigation into an Internet smash hit.
But the organization failed to attract widespread support from the Russian population or bring about political change, nor did it establish any strategy for how it would govern.
Tsikhanouskaya, who is considered by many to be Belarus’s democratic leader, said she has made it a priority to build democratic institutions and represent Belarusians within Belarus.
This includes a transitional cabinet and platform where “all parties and all forces are represented,” he explained, apparently encouraging Navalny to do so.
Navalnaya could be the person to unify the Russian opposition, which is famous “for its disagreements and quarrels,” Ashurkov suggested.
“It has a great reputation,” he said.
The tasks ahead are daunting and she will face them while mourning her husband and fighting to liberate his body.
“By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me, half of my heart and half of my soul,” he declared. “But I still have the other half and it tells me I have no right to give up.”
(AP)
