The Navalnys’ love story
The story of Alexey Navalny and Yulia Navalnaya, née Abrosimova, is one of hope and support. The politician and future first lady of the Russian opposition met while vacationing in Turkey.
They were both 22 years old at the time. Looking back, Navalny recalled that he immediately noticed that Yulia understood politics. That’s what he was first impressed by—a beautiful woman who knew the last names of all the Russian ministers. At the time, Abrosimova was a graduate of Plekhanov University, had interned in Denmark, and worked at a bank in Moscow.
Relatives of the couple shared that Navalny felt like he hit the jackpot after meeting a partner who motivated him to be even better and prove that he was worthy of her love every day.
For a quarter of a century, they lived an Oscar-winning romance. However, when the documentary about Navalny did indeed win an Oscar in 2023, the politician was already imprisoned.
Since then, Yulia has been dreaming of the day when her beloved one will be free. At the Oscar ceremony, she was wearing a red dress. Red became the language of their love; on trials, she was wearing red to set herself apart from the crowd. During one of those trials, Navalny said to his wife, “Don’t worry. Everything will turn out fine.” As a result, that hashtag spread worldwide, and many women dressed in red to show their support for the couple.
Probably, before the Navalnys, among Russian politicians only the Gorbachovs showed their love so openly and genuinely in public. The reason for that is because Soviet and Russian politicians consider love a weakness. Neither President Putin, nor Patrushev (a security officer and former intelligence officer), nor Zolotov (director of the National Guard) ever showed their affection to their wives, and their numerous mistresses are hidden under the Kremlin’s carpet.
Meanwhile, it’s not Volodya and Alina, the current Russian president and his alleged mistress, who have become symbols of traditional family values, but Yulia and Alexei Navalnys and their children. They truly demonstrated lifelong, lasting love, where, even years later, every touch was filled with emotion and passion. Their farewell kiss in Sheremetyevo airport, when they arrived from Germany in January 2021 and when Alexei was arrested, is still a source of much emotion.
Yulia Navalnaya was stunned that the Russian government, out of fear of Alexei Navalny, had made impossible departures for thousands of people on that day. However, Navalny claimed that he was not afraid. Nor was Yulia. She encouraged people to keep fighting for themselves and their country—Russia.
After Alexei’s arrest, she posted about her visits to her husband in prison on social media platforms. Despite all the difficulties, she cherished those moments, even though they took place in a tiny room in prison, and often the glass wall separated them. Navalny, in her opinion, remained cheerful.
According to law, in Russia, prisoners have the right to extended visits four times a year, everyone but Navalny. The government deliberately denied him access to his wife, intending to break him.
While Navalny was detained, Yulia maintained his social media accounts, carefully maintaining his image and ideas. She never tried to seize the initiative of her husband until it became essential.
She first appeared on stage more than ten years ago, in 2013. Back then, the election campaign for the mayor of Moscow took place, and the Navalnys began to face significant pressure. Yulia, not used to public speaking, was confused. She said that spouses of government officials rarely appeared on stage; however, politics consistently tried to break into families.
As said before, for the Russian authorities, families are the weakness that can be attacked. During that difficult period, constant searches took place in the Navalny family; even Yulia’s 80-year-old grandmother was harassed regularly. A criminal case was opened against Alexey’s Navalny brother. Parents were also experiencing government attacks regularly. That was the moment when Navalnaya decided to declare that the family is not a weakness, but on the contrary, the family is the strength of any person, especially a real politician.
After that, Yulia Navalnaya didn’t appear anywhere alone. However, the poisoning of her husband with Novichok forced her to come out of hiding. She literally had to fight with the authorities and Putin to get her husband out of Russia in order to be cured and saved.
Yulia never discouraged her husband from what he was doing because she truly respected and supported him. She often heard from her friends that they couldn’t do what she was doing. And she had the strength and courage to walk with her chosen one side by side until the very end.
Until February 2024, Yulia kept saying that she always wanted to be a politician’s wife, not the politician herself. However, in February, after Alexei’s death, everything turned upside down—she could no longer stay away. And pretty soon she got support from Russian politicians and Putin’s opponents, Dmitry Gudkov and Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Yulia Navalnaya became the new leader of the Russian opposition, with nothing left to lose. Putin killed half of her soul and heart, but the remaining half tells her that she has no right to give up.
Vitaly Ataev Troshin, SlavicSac.com
California Local News Fellowship
