LOS ANGELES.–Wife of deceased Russian dissident Alexi Navalny, 48-year-old Yulia Navalnaya, says she will return to Moscow to run for president once 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin is no longer in power. Navalyaya is now a fugitive from Russian justice, indicted for conspiracy and treason July 10 in a Moscow court. Now residing in Berlin, Navalnaya hopes to keep her husband’s dissident activity alive from afar, knowing that there no active movement in Russia to oust Putin or members of the Kremlin. “My political opponent is Vladimir Putin. And I will do everything to make this regime fall as soon as possible,” Navalnaya said, acting like she directs a vast opposition network inside Russia. Navalnaya hopes she can live off phony fundraising presenting herself as the main opposition figure working to oust Putin from power. But Navalnaya has no influence in Russia at all.
Navalnaya watched her husband commit suicide by returning to Moscow Jan. 17, 2021, after treated for a year in Germany for Novichok poisoning. Navalny was warned by former Yuko’s oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, now living in exile in Switzerland, not to return to Russia but Navalny didn’t listen. Navalny was promptly arrested by Russian authorities at Russia’s Sheremetyveo Airport, then prosecuted, given a two separate sentences totaling 30 years, keeping him in a Russian penal colony in the Arctic region where he died Feb. 16 of unknown causes. Navalnaya said she believes Putin ordered her husband’s death at age 47 but she has no proof to back it up. U.S. intel sources don’t think that Putin ordered his death but no one knows the actual details of what happened. Navalnaya wants foreign governments to back her dissident activities.
Why Navalny returned to Moscow against his wife’s advice isn’t known by anyone, other than martyring himself for the dubious cause of ousting Putin. Considered an anti-corruption activist, Navalny tried to alert the Russian people to Putin’s corruption, saying he owned a multimillion dollar Black Sea estate. Whether Navalny’s allegations were true or not, has never been proven, with an oligarch claiming ownership of the property Navalny’s claimed was Putin’s. U.S. and U.K. officials backed Navalny’s subversive activities as part of a wider effort to topple the Putin government. Watching his widow step forward claiming she would run one day for Russian president is preposterous, largely because she does not hold any grassroots popularity with what remains of the dissident community. Navalnaya’s clearly wants to make a living branding herself as Putin’s opposition.
Navalnaya has no clout in-or-out Russia, especially living more the moment in Germany, trying to make herself visible as her husband’s heir apparent. Navalny called Putin a thief who has looted, pillaged-and-plundered the Russian state since 1999 when he first became president. Western governments, primarily the U.S. and U.K., have done everything possible to subvert Putin’s power, something that would be considered outrageous if the Kremlin actively tried to topple the U.S. and U.K. governments. Whether admitted to or not, Navanly received his funding largely from cryptic Western nonprofits, looking to undermine Putin’s Russian government. Even in his heyday, Navalny was figment of the Western imagination without a real network or organization inside Russia. He became another Emmanuel Goldstein, in Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.”
Western governments since WW II, all through the Cold War, pretended a vast spy network worked night-and-day to subvert the Russian government, when, in fact, they had very little clout with any subversive elements. Navalny wrote his delusional missives in prison, knowing that he would never get out alive, claiming that Russia squandered its opportunity after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union to initiate real reforms. Navalny can only be understood as a failed dissident pretending to lead a vast network of opposition groups, when he commanded an army inside his head. Now his widow wants to cash in on her husband’s own delusions of grandeur fed by the insatiable West to believe there’s a way of getting rid of Putin. President Joe Biden, 81, who promised with his 71-year-old Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, to vanquish the Russian military, found out it’s not that easy.
Navalnaya says she’s the one that leads Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, a larely illusory group that appeals to dreamers inside Russia, but, more importantly, dreamers in Western governments looking to topple Putin. Navalnaya says she has proof that Putin ordered her husband’s assassination, though she’s never presented it. U.S. intel agencies don’t believe that Putin ordered Navalny’s assassination but, on the other hand, probably didn’t provide any heroic measures to save his life. No, Navalny once was left for dead after Novichok poisoning in 2021, making a remarkable recovery in Germany, only to return to Moscow for his arrest, conviction and long jail sentence. U.S. and U.K. officials have to figure out how much they want to get duped by Navalnaya, knowing she has zero clout in Russia. Pretending she runs her dead husband’s nonprofit is preposterous.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
