Alexei Navalny’s death left a vacuum in Russia's opposition — can his widow fill it?

His wife’s voice was the first thing Alexei Navalny recognized when he woke from a poisoning attempt that he blamed on the Kremlin.

On Monday, that voice was filled with rage against President Vladimir Putin, whom Yulia Navalnaya accused of killing her husband as she vowed to take up the mantle of his fight for a “free Russia.”

Her defiance in the aftermath of Navalny’s death in an Arctic penal colony have turned her into a leader-in-waiting for the country’s beleaguered opposition, raising hopes that his dream of a “beautiful Russia of the future” did not die with him.

'Putin killed half of me'

Navalnaya, 47, has been in the public eye alongside her husband for years. She regularly attended protests and rallies with him, and was a constant presence as Navalny campaigned against official corruption and fought for a more democratic Russia.

But she stayed largely in her husband’s shadow — until his life hung in the balance.

When Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent in 2020, Navalnaya played a pivotal role in getting him out of Russia for emergency treatment, even pleading with Putin in writing to let her husband be flown to Germany. Navalny later said she saved his life.

Navalnaya said at the time that she had to wear sunglasses so that no one could see her crying.

That stoicism was on display when the news of her husband’s death broke Friday while she was back in Germany to attend the Munich Security Conference. She stepped in front of a microphone, her face pale but determined, to make clear that if her husband really was dead, she wanted the Kremlin to know that it would bear responsibility for what it did to her family and her country.

Three days later, she delivered a lengthy, surprise video address accusing