Who Is Yulia Navalnaya, Stoic Partner of Deceased Putin Critic Who Vowed to Continue His Fight?

 S

tony-faced and resolute, Yulia Navalnaya on Monday picked up the baton from her late husband Alexei with a call to action for Russia’s opposition after years in his shadow.

In a dimly lit room, her light blond hair tied in her usual bun, the 47-year-old addressed the opposition that has been left leaderless after Navalny’s death.

“I call on you to stand by me,” she said in a powerful nine-minute video that gathered around two and a half million views in a few hours.

Her husband has for over a decade been Putin’s most prolific critic, running against the long-time ruler and blasting the regime’s corruption.

The two met on holiday in Turkey, with both saying they fell in love immediately.

A trained economist, Navalnaya gave up her job to raise the couple’s two children.

But she stayed away from the media spotlight, maintaining as much privacy as she could while Alexei’s political career took off.