In 2020, Alexei Navalny lay in a coma in an Omsk hospital. He had been poisoned with the nerve agent novichok in an FSB assassination attempt and Russian doctors appeared keen to leave him there until he died.
But his wife, Yulia, stepped in. She flew to Omsk to confront hospital staff, bringing along camera crews to put pressure on doctors and appealing directly to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to release her husband. Soon, Navalny was evacuated to Germany, where he recovered at Berlin’s Charité hospital.
“She was the person who got Alexei evacuated to Germany for treatment after two days of fighting in Omsk,” said Kira Yarmysh, an aide to Navalny, on Monday. “She was with him while he was recovering and when he returned to Russia.”
“She was fiercely brave and Alexei was only able to be evacuated because of her,” she said.
Yulia Navalnaya never sought the spotlight. But since Alexei died in a prison colony on Friday, she has stepped into it, announcing in a new video that she would “continue the work of Alexei Navalny. To continue to fight for our country. And I call on you to stand beside me.”
Allies and friends described her as a fierce supporter of her husband who had always resisted a public political life, but worked behind the scenes to support him and the political movement he built.
“We have discussed this with her many times – when Alexei was under house arrest or in jail,” said Sergei Guriev, a Professor of Economics at Sciences Po close to the Navalny family who has spoken with Yulia in recent days. “She would always say that having lived with a politician, she saw how dangerous and difficult this job is. And before she would always know that Alexei was alive and would be back.
“But this time around – as she has clearly explained in her statement – she had no choice.”
Born in 1976 in Moscow to a respected scientist and civil servant, Navalnaya studied economics and worked in banking before she left to focus on raising the couple’s two children.
She met Alexei during a holiday in Turkey in 1998 and they were married two years later. She later told an interviewer: “I did not get married to a promising lawyer or an opposition leader. I got married to a young man named Alexei.”
Yet as Navalny’s star rose, first as an anticorruption campaigner and then as an opposition politician, including runs for Moscow mayor in 2013 and for president in 2018, Yulia was always by his side. She spoke forcefully outside the courtrooms where he was often on trial, and sometimes joined him on campaign trips around the country.
When he was under house arrest in 2014 and cut off from the internet, Yarmysh said, Yulia would send messages from him to the staff of his Anti-Corruption Foundation. When he returned to Russia in 2021 and was imprisoned, she chaired the group’s supervisory board.
The couple were open about their love for each other, putting their marriage and family life on display. On Valentine’s Day, two days before his death, his Instagram account posted a picture of the pair with the words: “I feel that you’re close every second and I love you more and more.” Their story stood in stark contrast to Putin, who announced his divorce in 2013 and has sought to keep his personal life, including the identity of his children, a secret.
She also helped Navalny craft his image and would regularly discuss his projects with him. She offered “emotional support but not only [that]”, Guriev said. “She was involved in all political decisions and has always supported Alexei and was part of his cause. Alexei has always relied on her advice.”
Even in 2021 as her husband began what would be a life sentence in Russian prison, she said in a rare interview that she would resist going into politics.
“Not at the moment,” she said. “It’s much more interesting to be a politician’s wife. Besides, what I do in my place is also politics to some extent.”
She is now one of the most recognisable figures in opposition politics in Russia, seeking to carry the mantle of her late husband’s work while establishing a unique political identity. “Only time will reveal the extent of her impact on the political landscape,” wrote Tatiana Stanovaya, a political analyst and founder of R Politik.
Navalnaya inherits an opposition that has been shattered by Putin’s crackdown on dissent, especially since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when Russia mostly outlawed public demonstrations and criticism of the war.
That opposition is also fractious with regular infighting. But as she announced her entry into politics, Maxim Katz, a YouTuber and activist who has regularly feuded with Navalny’s team online, shared Navalnaya’s statement and wrote: “Cool.”
“I told her that she can rely on me,” said Dmitry Gudkov, a friend of the Navalnys who formerly served in the State Duma. He has been charged with spreading “fake news” about the military and lives in exile. “Now it’s important to show that we are together, united.”
The two families were close: Alexei and Yulia attended the Gudkovs’ wedding. Gudkov called Navalny’s death “not only a political tragedy, but also a personal one.”
“When you are part of the Navalny family, you have to prepare for everything,” he said. “Of course, she is strong.”
She was by his side as the two flew back to an almost certain fate in 2021. As they approached passport control at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, the couple were met by a phalanx of police officers, who said he was under arrest.
Alexei turned back to Yulia with a pained look, and gave her a kiss. The pair shared a quick goodbye, and she turned her eyes to the ground. Neither cried.
On Monday, Navalnaya vowed to expose the people who had killed her husband and to carry on his legacy. “A different person should be sitting in front of you but Vladimir Putin killed him,” she said, her voice filled with anger.
And as she began her new political life, she reprised her husband’s catchphrase (“Hello, this is Navalny!”) in a homage that his supporters would recognise immediately.
Staring directly into the camera, she began: “Hello, this is Yulia Navalnaya.”
