After Navalny death, who are the remaining Russia dissidents?

Alexei Navalny’s death is a major blow to opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government, but he is not the only one pushing for change in Russia.

At 47 years old, Mr. Navalny silenced the Russian leader’s most famous internal critic, whose death Friday in a remote Arctic penal colony was blamed on President Vladimir Putin.

Here we introduce some of the voices that are expected to bridge the gap within and outside Russia.

anti-corruption foundation

Navalny has built a network of allies through the Anti-Corruption Foundation, which he founded in 2011. The foundation has become Russia’s largest anti-corruption organization.

The group’s allies include top strategist Leonid Volkov, head of investigations Maria Pevchiv, foundation board member Ivan Zhdanov and spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, according to the Associated Press.

His allies face similar pressure and prosecution in Russia, and all have left the country to board ships in recent years, the newswire added. Their activities included organized protests and a public movement calling for Navalny’s release.

In the days since Navalny’s death, his allies have been speaking out, and Yarmysh has provided detailed updates on the investigation into his death.

In a series of posts over the weekend, Yarmysh claimed that Navalny had been killed and that his family was demanding that investigators return his body. He said on Monday that it would be another two weeks before Navalny’s body was released.

Zhdanov also provided updates on social media, and on Saturday, prison officials told Navalny’s mother that Navalny suffered from “sudden death syndrome,” a variety of heart syndromes that can cause sudden cardiac arrest and death. It was revealed that he was informed that he had passed away.

Yulia Navalnaya

Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, vowed on Monday to continue her husband’s work and fight for the country and against Putin.

In a video posted to her husband’s YouTube channel, Navalnaya called on her husband’s supporters to join him in his fight and honor his legacy.

“By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me, half of my heart and soul. But I still have the other half, and that tells me that I have no right to give up.” she said in the video, According to Google Translate Russian transcription.

“I will continue the work of Mr. Alexei Navalny. Continue to fight for our country. Please stand with me. Share my anger. Anger and fury at those who dared to kill our future,” she said.

mikhail khodorkovsky

Khodorkovsky, a 60-year-old former tycoon turned Russian dissident, spent 10 years in prison on charges considered largely political after clashing with President Vladimir Putin.

After Putin was released from prison in 2013, months before the Sochi Winter Olympics, he offered a surprise pardon in what appeared to be an attempt to improve Western perceptions of the Kremlin, the Associated Press said. did.

He was flown to Germany and eventually settled in London, where he founded the opposition group Open Russia, which had its own news organization. The group has endorsed candidates in several elections and provided an educational platform and legal assistance to defendants facing politically motivated prosecutions, according to the Associated Press.

Open Russia and its members often deal with repeated pressure from Russian authorities, and one of its leaders, Andrei Pivovarov, was sentenced to four years in prison, according to the Associated Press.

Although the group was eventually shut down, Khodorkovsky did not stop monitoring the Kremlin and its aftermath. formed an anti-war committeeAlliance Against Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine.

Khodorkovsky was quick to pin the blame for Navalny’s death on Putin.

“Russian Federal Penitentiary announced that Mr. Alexei Navalny died in prison. If this is true, we will never know exactly what actually happened. “The blame lies squarely with Vladimir Putin, who first ordered the poisoning and then sent him to prison,” he wrote. Friday post on Platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Vladimir Kara-Murza

Kara Murza, a former journalist turned opposition politician, is currently serving a 25-year sentence in a Siberian penal colony for treason, the Associated Press reported.

He was an associate of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. who was assassinated He has been operating close to the Kremlin since 2015 and had previously advocated for the US government to impose sanctions on Russians deemed human rights violators, the newswire added.

He continues to criticize Putin from behind bars in opinion columns and letters, often in solitary confinement. His wife, Evgenia, has also advocated for the freedom of her husband and other Kremlin critics, according to the Associated Press.

Ilya Yashin

Yashin, 40, has been a vocal supporter of Navalny’s efforts and has refused to leave Russia under pressure from authorities. He was arrested in June 2022 and sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for “spreading false information” about the Russian military, the Associated Press reported.

His associates continue to share messages from prison on social media, and his YouTube account has more than 1.5 million subscribers, the newswire added.

The Associated Press contributed.