Yulia Navalnaya, the campaigner and widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has said she plans to return to Russia and run for president when the time is right.
In an interview with the BBC marking the launch of her late husband’s posthumous memoir, Patriot, Navalnaya announced, “my goal is to bring about change in the country. If I return to Russia, I will run for president.”
However, she said her plans might have to wait until the Putin era ends.
Asked if she could see herself returning to her native country any time soon, Navalnaya responded, “while Putin is in power, for sure not … unfortunately.”
Navalny died in February in an arctic Russian penal colony in the Yamalo-Nenets region. His death at the hands of Russian authorities was met with international outcry and condemnation. US President Joe Biden said there was “no doubt” that Putin was to blame, a claim that the Kremlin denies.
For months after his death, no obvious successor as an opposition voice has emerged, and anti-government activists outside of Russia have been plagued by infighting. This intervention could help unify these groups and cement Navalnaya’s image as Putin’s fiercest opponent.
A life in exile
In July 2024, shortly after her husband’s death, a district court in Moscow ordered Navalnaya’s arrest for “participating in an extremist community”. Navalnaya was living abroad at the time and escaped arrest.
She remains on Russia’s official list of terrorists and extremists and faces near-certain arrest if she tries to go back.
Before her husband’s imprisonment in 2021, he almost died after being severely poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent, which Russia has been accused of using to silence critics in the past.
Navalnaya now runs a prominent human rights organisation and remains one of the Kremlin’s staunchest and loudest critics. “My political opponent is Vladimir Putin. And I will do everything to make his regime fall as soon as possible, ” she said.
“And it’s not just that. I want him to be held in the same conditions Alexei was kept in.”
