Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya will return to Russia one day to run for president

Since the death of Navalny in February, no single leader has emerged to unite the country’s disparate opposition

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Russian political leader and Alexei Navalny’s wife Yulia Navalnaya has accused Putin of ordering the killing of her husband, a claim the Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed. Photo: AP

Published: 4:29pm, 21 Oct 2024

Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said that she would one day return to Russia and run for president when Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin is no longer in power, the BBC reported on Monday.

Since the death of Navalny in a Russian prison in the Arctic Circle in February, no single leader has emerged to unite the country’s disparate opposition and there has been significant between different Russian dissident groups abroad.

“My political opponent is Vladimir Putin. And I will do everything to make his regime fall as soon as possible,” Navalnaya told the BBC.

When the time is right, “I will participate in the elections … as a candidate,” she was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Yulia Navalnaya, widow of late Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, attends a Berlin memorial service in his honour on his birthday. Photo: dpa

While Putin, Russia’s paramount leader since the last day of 1999, is still in power, Navalnaya said she 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.