Meet the first lady of Russia’s opposition, Yulia Navalnaya: after her tragic love story with the late Alexei Navalny, she’s the voice against Vladimir Putin, and chairs the Human Rights Foundation
- Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in February at a penal colony after being detained in 2021; he wrote a poetic post on Instagram a day before his death about the love he shares with his wife
- The couple met in Turkey in 1998 and shares 2 children, Dasha and Zakhar, who live outside of Russia; the country’s authorities have ordered the arrest of Yulia, who has met with US President Joe Biden
A little less than five months after Alexei Navalny died under suspicious circumstances in a Russian prison camp, authorities in the country have ordered the arrest of his widow, Yulia Navalnaya.
Alexei was a Russian opposition leader and lawyer who died in February this year. Just a few years earlier, he was in a coma after allegedly being poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. His wife, Yulia, who was always by his side but steered clear of the spotlight, has since become the leader of the opposition.
Yulia, who now lives in exile, has often been referred to as a “snow queen” for her aloofness, but the 48-year-old has become the voice for many dissidents of Russia’s current regime. Here is what you need to know about her:
What is Yulia Navalnaya’s background?
Yulia was born in Moscow in 1976. Her father Boris Abrosimov was a scientist and her mother Alla worked in government. Per Washington Post, her parents split when she was a child and she rarely mentioned them as she got older and her life became more public.
According to Reuters, Yulia studied economics at the Plekhanov Russian School of Economics before working at a Moscow bank. She then worked at a foreign trade company.
How she fell in love with Alexei Navalny
