Alexei Navalny’s widow said she plans to run for president of Russia after Vladimir Putin leaves office and free and fair elections in the country become possible.
“My goal is to bring about change in the country. If I return to Russia, I will run for president,” Yulia Navalnya told the BBC in an interview aired just days before the release of her husband’s posthumous memoir “Patriot.”
“My political opponent is Vladimir Putin. And I will do everything to make his regime fall as soon as possible,” Navalnaya, who lives in exile abroad, said.
Shortly after Navalny died at an Arctic penal colony in February, Navalnaya vowed to continue his activist work. Russian law enforcement authorities charged her with “participating in an extremist organization” in July.
Navalny died under unclear circumstances while serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges of organizing an extremist group. Several Western governments sanctioned Moscow in response and called for an independent investigation into his death, while the Kremlin has denied accusations that it killed Navalny in prison.
Navalnaya told the BBC that she would like to see Putin face trial and serve prison time in Russia.
“And it’s not just that — I want him to be held in the same conditions Alexei was kept in,” she said, adding that a team of investigators she leads uncovered “evidence” about Navalny’s death. She vowed to release those findings in the future.
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