Un lungo articolo di TIME a firma Simon Shuster, corrispondente senior che si occupa di affari internazionali con particolare attenzione alla Russia e all’Ucraina, racconta la storia di Yulia Navalnaya, moglie del defunto dissidente russo Alexei Navalny.
Dopo la morte di suo marito in un campo di prigionia artico, Yulia è diventata una figura di spicco nell’opposizione russa. Ha incontrato il presidente Joe Biden e ha parlato al Parlamento europeo, accusando Vladimir Putin di aver ucciso suo marito. Nonostante il dolore, Yulia continua a lottare per la democrazia in Russia. Il futuro dell’opposizione russa rimane incerto senza Alexei Navalny, ma Yulia si impegna a continuare la sua opera.

In Russian custom, the soul of the dead is believed to remain on earth for forty days, finishing its business among the living before it moves on to the afterlife. Surviving friends and relatives often spend this period in mourning and reflection. But the loved ones of Alexei Navalny, Russia’s leading dissident, did not have much freedom to abide by this custom after he died in an Arctic prison camp on February 16.For them, and especially for his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, the days and weeks that followed his death rushed by in a blur of studio lights, airport terminals, hotel rooms and video calls. Somewhere in that time, between consoling their two children and being consoled by them, she met with President Joe Biden in San Francisco and addressed the European parliament in Strasbourg. She accused Vladimir Putin of killing her husband, and she implored the Russian people to help her get revenge. Along the way, to the surprise of many of her husband’s followers, Navalnaya took on a role she had never occupied before — no longer the first lady of the Russian opposition, but now its figurehead.