Yulia Navalnaya has realized that her husband, the late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, will return to Russia once he recovers from being poisoned in an attack he blames on the Kremlin.
Navalnaya said they knew the risks, but there was still no debate about whether returning to Russia was the right move. For them, it was a matter of timing, not whether they would bring the fight against Vladimir Putin back to Russia.
“Of course, I would like to live my whole life with my husband,” she said. “But at that moment, I knew there was only one decision he could make.” “This was his decision. I knew how important it was to him. I knew he would not be happy living in exile.”
They were met by police, who arrested Navalny when he and Yulia returned to Russia in 2021. Navalny’s fight against Putin, his arrest and his time in prison before his death in February 2024 were detailed in his posthumous memoir, “Patriot.”
How Navalny wrote ‘Patriot’ while in prison
Navalny began working on his memoir, which will be released on October 22, while he was in Germany recovering from a 2020 assassination attempt that nearly cost him his life. But much of it was written while he was detained in Russia.
The opposition leader managed to maintain a social media presence while in prison, and continued his attacks on Putin. 60 Minutes was asked not to say how Navalny was able to post online.
Navalnaya said the conditions her husband faced in Russia worsened every month because he continued to speak out against Putin. Those conditions included “sleep deprivation,” “punitive solitary confinement,” and almost no medical care, Navalny wrote in Patriot. When none of that broke him, he was repeatedly sent into a “concrete black hole” called the “Punishment Cell.” It will stay there for up to 15 days at a time.
Memoirs of Alexei Navalny
Despite the circumstances, he wrote that he was happy because he loved his work, knew he had support, and because “I met a woman with whom I not only shared love… [who] “He is just opposed to what is happening.”
He was able to publish his writings under constant monitoring.
“Alexey was very smart and very creative,” Navalnaya said.
Navalny wrote that he devised a process to fool guards, using identical notebooks and passing them to someone during a court appearance.
“It was very difficult,” Navalnaya said. “That is why we have memoirs from the first year, much less from the second year, and not from the third year because that was not possible.”
She takes over her late husband’s work
Navalny was tried and convicted several times under various pretexts in the years leading up to his death. His original three-and-a-half year prison sentence was extended to 19 years. After each sentence, he was transferred to a different prison with harsher conditions. He was transferred to a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle last December.
The 47-year-old’s final court appearance came just one day before his death on February 16. Navalnaya posted a video message shortly after her husband’s death.
“Vladimir Putin killed my husband,” she said. “By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me, half of my heart, and half of my soul.”
Navalnaya, once her husband’s silent partner, is now the leader of the opposition movement. She says the battle against Putin is not over yet. She said that her husband still has the support of the Russian people.
“He still has millions of supporters,” Navalnaya said of her late husband. “You can see it by the number of people who go to his grave every day, and the number of flowers on his grave.”
Yulia Navalnaya 60 minutes
She also posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Putin’s location is in a Russian prison, in a small cell like the one where her husband died.
“He would have to be in a Russian prison to feel everything,” she said. “Not only my husband, but all the prisoners in Russia [feel]”.
What are the risks of Navalnaya?
Navalny’s political network in Russia has been crushed. Many members of his old team are now working in Vilnius, Lithuania. Three of his lawyers are on trial in Russia, where Putin won his fifth term in office in March.
Navalnaya and her two children were forced to live in exile. She is constantly on the move, pressuring Western leaders to stand up to Putin.
Over the summer, a Russian court issued an arrest warrant for Navalnaya, but she remains defiant and unafraid of Putin — even though she knows she could face retaliation.
“I don’t want to live my life and spend my life every day thinking about whether they will kidnap me today or tomorrow, or whether they will poison me today or tomorrow,” she said.
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Lesley Stahl
