‘I wasn’t supposed to be making this video,” she said. “Somebody else was supposed to be in my place. But that person was killed by Vladimir Putin.” 

She continued: “Putin killed the father of my children. Putin took away the most precious thing I had, the closest person to me, and the person I loved most in the world. But Putin also took Navalny from you all.”

In killing Navalny, she told Russians, Putin didn’t just want to kill one person: “He wanted to kill our hopes, our freedom and our future.”

“Alexey died in a penal colony after three years of torture and agony.

“He wasn’t just behind bars like other prisoners. He was tortured. He was held in an isolation cell, in a concrete box. Please just imagine it: a room of only six or seven square metres.

“Nothing in it but a stool, a sink, a hole in the floor instead of a toilet, and a bed that’s attached to the wall so you can’t lie down. A cup, one book and a toothbrush. Nothing else, for hundreds of days,” she said.

But despite being tortured and starved for three years, Navalnaya said, her husband didn’t give up.

“And not only did he not give up, but he supported us the entire time, encouraging us, laughing, joking and inspiring us. Never for a fraction of a second did he have doubts about what he was fighting and suffering for.”

It was because of this perseverance, she continued, that Putin ultimately killed Navalny. 

“[He killed him] in a disgraceful and cowardly way, never daring to even look him in the eyes or even say his name,” she said.

“And in the same despicable and cowardly fashion, they’re now hiding his body, refusing to show it to his mother, not handing it over, pathetically lying, and waiting until the traces of yet another batch of Novichok [poison] disappear.”

“We know exactly why Putin killed Alexey three days ago,” Yulia said. “We’ll tell you about it soon.”

Navalnaya vowed that she and her husband’s associates would find out “exactly who committed this crime and how” — and would reveal the perpetrators’ names and faces.

She also addressed the question of why her husband returned to Russia to face certain political imprisonment after being poisoned by the Putin regime three years ago.

“After all, he could have lived peacefully, taken care of himself and his family, right?” she told viewers. “He could have stopped speaking out, stopped investigating, stopped fighting, right? No, he couldn’t have,” she said.

“Alexey loved Russia more than anything in the world. He loved our country. […] So deeply and sincerely that he was ready to give his life for it. And his immense love will be enough for us to continue his work. For as long as it takes. Just as fiercely and just as bravely as Alexey himself.”

“By killing Alexey,” Navalnaya said, “Putin killed half of me — half of my heart and half of my soul. But I still have the other half. And it’s telling me I don’t have the right to give up.”

She called on Russians to join her:

“I will continue the work of Alexey Navalny. […] And I call on you to stand beside me. Not only to share the grief and the endless pain that has engulfed us. I ask you to share the fury. The fury, the anger, the hatred towards those who have dared to destroy our future.

She ended with a clip of Alexey Navalny himself from the 2022 documentary about his poisoning.

“All that’s necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing,” he told his compatriots. “So don’t do nothing.” DM

First published by Meduza