'I Will Continue To Fight For Russia' Vows Alexei Navalny's Widow

As the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny prompted worldwide condemnation over the weekend, his widow on Monday vowed to continue the fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom she directly blamed for the death of her husband.

Yulia Navalnaya recorded a video broadcast on YouTube on Monday. She opened by saying that she should not have had to record the video.

“There should have been another person in my place, but this person was killed by Vladimir Putin,” she said.

She urged supporters of her husband’s work to continue their opposition to the Putin administration.

“The most important thing we can do is to keep fighting. We should all unite in a strong fist and defeat this crazy regime. As long as it’s necessary, we’ll work fiercely and courageously as Alexei did,” Navalnaya said.

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Personal Promise To Continue Campaigning

Navalnaya then announced that she would personally carry on the campaign against the Kremlin, Putin and the “bandits in shoulder straps,” referring to his closest military and intelligence aides.

“I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny. I will continue to fight for our country and I encourage you to stand by my side,” Navalnaya said.

Earlier on Monday, Navalny’s mother was denied entry to a morgue where it was believed his body was being held.

“They are now hiding his body — waiting pitifully for the traces of another Putin Novichok to disappear,” his widow said, referring an earlier poisoning in 2020 for which he sought treatment in Berlin, Germany.

Death In The Arctic

On his return to Russia in January 2021, Navalny was arrested on violation of parole conditions, having been officially under house arrest prior to his medical evacuation to Germany.

His arrest was met with mass demonstrations across Russian cities by his supporters, but in February 2021 he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years detention. A year later this was extended by nine years on embezzlement charges and in August 2023, a further 19 years was added to his sentence.

Having gone missing from prison for three weeks in December last year, it emerged that he had been taken to a penal facility in the Arctic Circle.

Describing his three-year imprisonment, particularly in the Arctic facility, his widow recounted the squalid conditions he faced, including starvation, cold, and torture.

“My husband was unbreakable, and that’s exactly why Putin killed him,” she said. “Putin has also taken Navalny away from you… He wanted to kill our hopes, our freedom and our future.

In vowing to carry on the fight, she concluded: “I was always by his side — elections, rallies, house arrests, searches, detentions, prison, poisoning, arrests and prison again.

“But today I want to be by your side, because you have lost as much as I have,” Navalnaya said.

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