Who is Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Putin critic Alexei Navalny?

Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny reportedly died Friday (Feb 16), according to Russian state media. The reports said he collapsed inside the brutal Polar Wolf jail and could not be resuscitated. Here is everything you need to know about his wife.

Yulia Navalnaya, 47, has been described as Russia’s ‘first lady’ of the opposition.

Yulia met Navalny in the summer of 1998 during holidays in Turkey. The couple got married two years later, in 2000. 

The couple has two children—a daughter Daria, 23, and a son Zakhar, 15.

Yulia Navalnaya was an economist and worked with several Russian banks before getting married to Navalny. She supported her husband throughout his long, perilous journey against the most powerful leader of Russia.

In 2020, while Alexei Navalny battled death in Germany after allegedly being poisoned by Russian agents, Yulia used to brief journalists about his condition.

Yulia said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his associates will not go unpunished if the death of Alexei Navalny turns out to be true, Reuters reported.