Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Alexei Navalny, steps forward to lead the Russian opposition

Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, attends the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 16, 2024, the day it was announced Navalny was dead. Kai Pfaffenbach/Pool/AFP via Getty Images& – 3 points to understand by Farida Jalalzai, Virginia Tech Alexei Navalny, one of Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s biggest critics and the country’s de facto opposition leader, died under suspicious circumstances in an Arctic prison on Feb. 16, 2024. Hours after his death was announced, Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, appeared in a video on social media and said, “I want to live in a free Russia, I want to build a free Russia.”. Navalnaya, who lives outside of Russia, accused Putin of killing her husband and also promised to “continue the work of Alexei Navalny.” Since her husband’s death, Navalyana, who was generally not prominently involved in politics before, has shown other signs of stepping into politics. She is lobbying the European Union to enact new sanctions against Putin, for example. Navalnaya and her daughter also met with President Joe Biden, to whom she reiterated her desire to keep up her husband’s fight against Putin. My research examining female leaders worldwide recognizes family connections as an important pathway...