After posting a powerful video last week in which she pledged to continue her murdered husband’s work, her rage and pain on view for all to see, Navalnaya went on to urge EU leaders to not recognise the results of Russia’s presidential elections in March.
Before Navalny’s death, Navalnaya had always remained in the background and had resisted any efforts to make her a political figure in her own right. She and her husband both rejected calls for Navalnaya to be nominated in her husband’s place to stand in Russia’s 2018 presidential elections after he was barred from running.
Nonetheless, Navalnaya played a vital role in her husband’s two-decade-long political career, and has significant experience in the challenges faced by anyone who takes on the Kremlin. In the worst imaginable circumstances, she now finds herself alone in the political spotlight, but might she be the unifying shot in the arm the Russian opposition so desperately needs?