- Yulia Navalnaya says she will return to Russia to run for president
- Her husband, Alexei, died in an Arctic prison eight months ago.
- Navalny was seen as the biggest threat to Putin’s regime.
Yulia Navalnaya, wife of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has proclaimed that she will return to Russia to run for president.
Navalnaya, 48, told the BBC that she intends to fight for control of the country, following the death of her husband eight months ago in the infamous Polar Wolf prison, located in the Yamalo-Nenets Arctic region.
Since the death of Navalny, an outspoken anti-corruption activist who was seen as the biggest threat to Vladimir Putin’s tight control over Russia, no leader has emerged to unify the country’s disparate opposition and there has been significant infighting between different Russian dissident groups. abroad. .
‘My political opponent is Vladimir Putin. And I will do everything possible to ensure that his regime falls as soon as possible,” Navalnaya told the BBC.
When the right time comes, “I will participate in the elections… as a candidate,” she told the BBC.
He said he planned to wait until Putin was no longer in power before taking any official political steps.
Yulia Navalnaya (pictured) told the BBC that she intends to fight for control of the country.
Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic prison, allegedly on the orders of Vladimir Putin (pictured)
Navalny (pictured) was an outspoken anti-corruption activist.
Although Putin, Russia’s supreme leader since the last day of 1999, is still in power, Navalnaya said he would not return. Putin turned 72 this month.
Navalny, 47, died suddenly on February 16, depriving the Russian opposition of its most charismatic and popular leader.
He had been serving sentences totaling more than 30 years on charges he claimed were rigged to silence his criticism of Putin.
The Kremlin calls Navalny’s political allies dangerous extremists seeking to destabilize the country in the name of the West. He says Putin enjoys overwhelming support among ordinary Russians, pointing to opinion polls that put his approval rating above 80%.
Navalny described Putin’s Russia as a fragile criminal state ruled by thieves, sycophants and spies who only care about money. He had long predicted that Russia could face seismic political upheaval, including a revolution.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, his wife Yulia, opposition politician Lyubov Sobol and other protesters march in memory of murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov in central Moscow on February 29, 2020.
People hold banners during a vigil in memory of Alexiei Navalny in front of the Russian Consulate General on February 16, 2024 in Munich, Germany.
In one of his last major essays, Navalny in 2023 admonished the Russian elite for its venality and expressed hatred toward those who squandered a historic opportunity to reform the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Navalnaya accused Putin of ordering her husband’s murder, an accusation the Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed.
US intelligence agencies have determined that Putin did not order Navalny’s murder, according to the AP and the Wall Street Journal.
In August, Navalnaya dismissed investigators’ information that Navalny had died from “a combination of illnesses.”
She told the BBC that the Anti-Corruption Foundation she now runs in place of her husband has evidence that they will reveal when they have “the full picture.”