Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, told the BBC in an interview she would run for president if she is able to return to a post-Putin Russia.
"I will participate in the elections… as a candidate" when the time is right, Navalnaya told the BBC in an interview published on Oct. 21.
Navalnaya said that she aims to "bring closer and make change in the country possible" without going into further details, but added that she is not "a magician and does not know the secret" of bringing about immediate change in Russia.
"If you can't do something big right away, do something small every day, and the more people do that, the sooner it will be time for change," she said.
Navalnaya said her return to Moscow is "unfortunately impossible" as long as Russian President Vladimir Putin remains in office.
She currently lives abroad and did not attend the funeral of her husband, Alexei, which took place on March 3, in fear of being arrested.
In July, a court in Moscow ordered the arrest in absentia of Navalnaya on charges of "participating in an extremist organization." The charges mean that if she were to return to Russia she would face jail time, similar to her late husband.
Alexei Navalny returned to Russia in 2021 after being hospitalized in Germany following an attempt on his life, and was immediately detained. He died in on Feb. 16 in a penal colony in Russia after being convicted in several fabricated criminal cases as part of the Kremlin's crackdown on dissent. Leaders around the world have blamed Putin for his death.
Following the death of her husband, Navalnaya entered more into the public spotlight. She has accused Putin of murdering her husband and vowed to continue Navalny's work.
Navalny's memoir "Patriot," compiled from the Russian opposition leader's prison diaries and edited in part by his widow, Yuliya, will be published posthumously on Oct. 22.
Oleg Sukhov
(Updated: )
