Do we like Yulia Navalnaya?
Our score: 7 out of 10. She stands up to Putin at real personal cost, with one contested Ukraine position and a thin record on LGBTQ+ issues.
Navalnaya trained as an economist and married Alexei Navalny in 2000. For years she stayed out of politics and was known as the first lady of the Russian opposition. She helped get him evacuated to Germany after the 2020 poisoning. When he died in prison in February 2024, she said she would carry on his work.
She has since gone from spouse to political player. She spoke at the Munich Security Conference and met EU leaders in Brussels. She pushed for tougher sanctions on Putin's inner circle and says Putin is responsible for her husband's death, which the Kremlin called unfounded and vulgar. She now chairs the Human Rights Foundation as well as the advisory board of her husband's Anti-Corruption Foundation.
On the harm test the record is thin, and we'll say so. We found nothing from her on trans or LGBTQ+ rights, climate or migrants, so there are no harmful words and no pledges of support either. What she has said is that negotiating with Putin is pointless because he will break any deal. She has also told Western leaders to show they are stronger than him. Nothing in the reporting we read ties her to anyone pushing harm.
The sore spot is Ukraine. In 2024 she voiced concerns about Western weapons for Kyiv and said “bombs also hit Russians”, which angered many Ukrainians. When activists set off air-raid sirens during her Lisbon speech that November, she invited one on stage. She later said she is fighting Putin's regime and the war. Whether you read that as a considered anti-Putin position or as dodging a direct answer is where people split.
The recent stoush is inside her own camp. Former CEO Ivan Zhdanov alleged that Leonid Volkov hired fictitious employees, and Volkov denied it. A former host also alleged a toxic atmosphere at the foundation. Navalnaya, who says she removed Zhdanov as CEO, rejected his claims and said an internal audit found nothing. That audit is her account only, and Zhdanov hasn't answered in the reporting we saw.
The good stuff is the plain courage of it. She is an exile who can't go home, running a movement against a government that, in her words, kills its political opponents. She has used her platforms to name less famous prisoners, saying there are “a lot of unknown names imprisoned for political reasons”. That is using a platform for other people.