Yulia Navalnaya at the 61st Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, 15 February 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE / RONALD WITTEK
Russian opposition politician Yulia Navalnaya has warned Western leaders against engaging in talks with Vladimir Putin, stressing that there was “no point” attempting to negotiate with the Russian leader.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, two days before the first anniversary of her husband Alexey’s death in an Arctic penal colony, Navalnaya said that Putin would lie to Western leaders and would refuse to honour any negotiated settlement to end the war in Ukraine.
“There are only two possible outcomes for any deal with Putin. If he remains in power, he will find a way to break the agreement. If he loses power, the agreement will become meaningless”, Navalnaya stressed, adding that he would “change the rules at the last moment and force you to play his game”.
It was while attending last year’s Munich Security Conference that Navalnaya learned of her husband’s death, vowing in a speech shortly afterwards that “Putin and his entire entourage” would be held accountable “for what they have done to our country, to my family and to my husband”.
Her warning at this year’s conference came after a week in which US President Donald Trump spoke with Putin by phone and declared afterwards that negotiations to end the war would begin “immediately”, the pair having agreed to “work together, very closely” to bring hostilities to an end.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has in recent weeks expressed his increasing openness to negotiations with Putin should that be the only way to achieve peace, said at the conference on Friday that he would only meet with the Russian leader once Kyiv developed “a common plan” on ending the war together with Washington and Europe.
Navalnaya was speaking on a panel on repressions in Russia and abroad alongside exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops not only from Ukraine, but also from Belarus, whose territory Russia used to launch its offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.
“Lukashenko’s regime has remained unpunished for a long time. He will continue to serve Putin, exchanging Belarusian sovereignty for his political survival”, Tsikhanouskaya said.
On Friday, Zelensky warned that Russia was planning a fresh large-scale attack on Ukraine or a European NATO member state in 2026, and that Moscow would deploy up to 150,000 troops to Belarus later this year under the pretext of preparing for joint training exercises.
