Alexei Navalny’s wife, Yulia, has shared with the world her last message to her husband.
The grieving widow was unable to attend Navalny’s funeral for fear of arrest.
She vowed to continue her work and turned to X to share a video accompanied by her moving words.
For a woman who finds herself at the center of one of the greatest democratic struggles of modern times, who now carries the weight of the progress of Navalny’s opposition on her shoulders, her message contains not a single mention of politics or war: only love.
Alexei Navalny’s wife, Yulia, has shared with the world her last message to her husband.
Yulia wrote: ‘For love, for always supporting me, for making me laugh even from prison, for the fact that you always thought of me’
Alexei Navalny leaves behind his wife Yulia and their two children, ages 22 and 17.
Her post, addressed to Lyosha, Alexei’s nickname, reads: ‘Lyosha, thank you for 26 years of absolute happiness.
Yulia could not attend the funeral because she would have been a prime target for arrest.
She has assumed the position of new leader of the opposition, after the death of her husband.
A life in the political spotlight is said to be a big change for Yulia, who once told Russia’s Harper’s Bazaar that her “key task” was taking care of the couple’s children and home.
He addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday, shortly after Navalny’s aides announced they had organized his funeral after spending more than a week trying to recover his body and find a suitable location.
She said: ‘I thought that in the 12 days since Alexey’s murder, I would have time to prepare for this speech. But first we spent a week recovering Alexey’s body and organizing his funeral. Then I chose the cemetery and the coffin.
“I’m still not sure if it will be peaceful or if the police will arrest those who have come to say goodbye to my husband.”
In her speech before the European Parliament she spoke about what her husband went through and her intentions for Russia.
She said: “He was starved to death in a small stone cell isolated from the outside world and denied visits, phone calls and even letters, and then killed.”
She wrote: “I don’t know how to live without you, but I will try to make you up there, happy for me and proud of me.”
Yulia could not attend the funeral because she would have been a prime target for arrest.
Alexei Navalny had been married to Yulia since 2000 and they had two children together.
She wrote: “I have so many untold stories for you, and I have so many songs saved for you on my phone, stupid and funny, generally, to be honest, terrible songs, but they’re about us, and I really wanted to.” to let you listen to them’
She said: “My husband will never see what the beautiful Russia of the future will be like, but we must see it.”
Yulia told the European Parliament: ‘This is the answer to the question: if you really want to defeat Putin you have to become an innovator; You have to stop being boring.
‘Even after that they abused his body and abused his mother.
‘He was the opposite of everything boring.
‘This is the answer to the question: if you really want to defeat Putin you have to become an innovator; You have to stop being boring.
Putin must answer for what he has done to my country.
Putin must answer for what he has done to a neighboring and peaceful country.
And Putin must answer for everything he has done to Alexei.
“My husband will never see what the beautiful Russia of the future will be like, but we must see it.”
And I will do everything to make your dream come true.
‘Evil will fall and the beautiful future will come.’
Thousands of supporters attended Navalny’s funeral despite clear advice to abstain, and anti-Putin chants were heard among the crowd, violating Russian law.
Many shouted “Putin is a murderer.”
As expected, there was a strong police presence.
Details of those attending were unknown, but the ambassadors of France, Germany and the United States were in the crowd, as were some of Russia’s last free independent politicians.
Navalny’s team had accused Putin of murdering his chief critic and obstructing their efforts to give the dissident a dignified send-off, saying several funeral homes and hearse companies had done so.
It had also been warned that male mourners could be detained at the funeral and sent to fight on the Ukrainian front, where Putin is fighting a brutal war that last week entered its third year.