Yulia Navalnaïa, 48 years old, was included in the register of “terrorists and extremists” in Russia in July.
Yulia Navalnaïa, widow of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, said on Sunday in an interview with the British Sunday Times that she wanted Vladimir Putin to be removed until he became an “ordinary prisoner”.
“I want him to go from a kind of Russian tsar to an ordinary prisoner in Russia“, says Ms. Navalnaïa to the weekly, which publishes this interview two days before the posthumous release of Mr. Navalny’s memoirs. Assuring that she does not hate the Russian president, she still hopes to see him imprisoned, “as (her) husband was“.
Opponent Alexeï Navalny, sworn enemy of Vladimir Putin, died in detention in February in an Arctic prison, under unclear circumstances.
Yulia Navalnaïa, 48 years old, was included in the register of “terrorists and extremists“in Russia in July, shortly after an arrest warrant was issued against him for “participation in an extremist group“. She lives outside the country, vowing to keep her late husband’s cause alive. During this interview, Ms. Navalnaïa reveals, however, that she had never considered taking the head of the Russian opposition in the event of his death. of her husband.
“I think he would have liked to keep me away from these dangerous political things“. “But you realize you have no choice. Of course, you could keep quiet. But it’s not me. I would never abandon Russia“.
She, who has lived in Germany for many years, explains that she excludes a return to Russia before being sure of “not to be detained in an airport like Alexei“, acknowledging that “no one knows” when that might happen.
Regarding her husband’s decision to return to Russia in January 2021 despite the risks, materialized by an immediate arrest, Yulia Navalnaïa “totally understood that we had to fight“. “It’s his life, it’s his choice, it’s his convictions. By persuading him to stay in exile, I would have felt more guilty“.
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