Yulia Navalnaya at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on September 28, 2022. Stephanie Lecocq/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Following the death of her husband, Yulia Navalnaya has made a promise: She will not be deterred by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Alexey Navalny died Friday in a Russian prison north of the Arctic Circle, after being arrested in 2021 upon returning to Russia.
On Monday, Navalnaya vowed to continue her late husband's legacy, saying "no one except ourselves will protect us."
In the spotlight: While she is now front and center of her husband's fight, Navalnaya used to largely avoid the spotlight.
The couple met shortly after Yulia, a Moscow native, graduated from Plekhanov University of Economics, where she studied international relations. She worked in a bank before leaving to care for their eldest daughter, Darya.
Returning from maternity leave, Navalnaya helped her parents-in-law sell furniture for a few years, but after their son, Zakhar, was born – and with Navalny increasingly in the spotlight – she decided to focus solely on the family.
However, the opposition leader fell gravely ill in August 2020 while on a return flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk. The pilot made an emergency landing in Omsk, where Navalny was taken to hospital for urgent treatment before being transferred to Germany, still critically ill.
As Navalny lay comatose in a clinic in Omsk, Navalnaya suddenly stepped into the center stage – and her image of a stoic, calm, and collected woman became a story of its own.
Navalnaya risked arrest as she attended protests calling for her husband's release, and helped put public and international pressure on the Russian government.
Independent Russian media outlets compared her to former US First Lady Michelle Obama, and supporters wondered if the day would come when she would lead the country's opposition movement. On Instagram, supporters dubbed her "the First Lady" for risking arrest to protest for her husband's release.
No surrender: Now a more defiant symbol than ever for Navalny's cause, Navalnaya has promised she will continue his fight for a democratic Russian government.