Navalny’s widow offers tribute: ‘Don’t know how to live without you’

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, paid an emotional tribute to the late Russian opposition leader after laying her husband to rest during a funeral at a Moscow church where hundreds of mourners gathered to pay their respects. 

In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Navalnaya shared a video compilation of her husband, highlighting their decades-long marriage as well as his legacy as one of the most vocal critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Thank you for 26 years of absolute happiness. Yes, even over the last three years of happiness. For love, for always supporting me, for making me laugh even from prison, for the fact that you always thought about me,” she wrote in the post.

“I don’t know how to live without you, but I will try to make you up there happy for me and proud of me. I don’t know if I can handle it or not, but I will try,” the post continued. 

The video also captured private moments of Navalny’s life outside of the political sphere, notably those shared with his wife and two children.

Shortly after Navalny’s death, President Biden met with Navalnaya and his daughter Dasha Navalnaya in San Francisco, where he expressed his condolences and affirmed his commitment to impose major sanctions against Russia. 

Biden, along with many international leaders, has placed the blame squarely on Putin for the opposition leader’s death and denounced Putin’s repressive regime. 

News of Navalny’s death was announced Feb. 16 by Russian officials who said the opposition leader died while serving a 19-year sentence in Russia’s highest security level prison near the Arctic Circle. 

According to the Russian Federal Prison Service, Navalny, 47, reportedly felt unwell after a walk and lost consciousness, with efforts to revive him failing. His mother was later told her son died from “sudden death syndrome” — a vague term for various cardiac syndromes that can prompt sudden cardiac arrest and death.

In the days that followed, his family called for the release of his body after authorities said they would be holding it pending further investigation.

“I thought that in the 12 days since Alexei’s murder, I would have time to prepare for this speech. But first we spent a week — a week getting Alexei’s body and organizing the funeral,” Navalnaya said in an address to the European Union’s parliament. 

Navalny’s funeral took place at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows in the Maryino district of Moscow, which was surrounded by crowd-control barriers and featured a heavy police presence. In the wake of his death, hundreds of people mourning the loss of Putin’s top rival were detained in Russia at various events.