by SInce Alexei Navalny, the prominent Russian opposition leader and critic of the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, died in prison in February 2024. His widow Yulia Navalnaya has become a renowned lawyer for human rights around the world.
At the time of the summit 100 in New York City on April 23, she discussed the dangers that she is exposed to when she did her work as chair of the advisory board of the anti-corruption foundation and chairman of the Human Rights Foundation.
Navalnaya spoke to the senior correspondent Simon Shuster, the senior correspondent Simon Shuster, and told how it is to lead an organization in exile in Lithuania in which she emphasized her drive to protect the opponents of Putin and her husband.
“It is no longer possible for me to return to Russia,” she said. “[But] We know that we are fighting for a better future for our country. We are fighting against this regime that kills their political opponents, which starts wars, which keeps many people in fear. “
Navalnaya also spoke about the relationship between Russia and the USA. She said she was alerted about how Trump treats Putin as “the same” because Trump “was chosen in democratic elections and Putin was not”. She asked the Trump government to show that “it is much stronger than Vladimir Putin and that they are not the same president”.
She thought about continuing the legacy of her late husband and discussed the risks of publishing his book. Navalny’s memoirs Patriot, Partly written from prison, was published posthumously in October 2024. “It was a problem to bring it to Russia, and we were not sure whether people would be detained if we started sending this book to Russia.” Every reader in Russia was provided with a free e-book.
While Navalny was a famous Putin opponent, Navalnaya said that she wanted to take the time to recognize the many less known people unjust. “Russia is a huge country and there are many unknown names detained for political reasons.” The oppression of opponents, she said, “will continue to increase.”
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The TIME100 summit calls executives from the global time 100 community to find solutions and promote actions for a better world. This year’s Summit offers a variety of speakers in a variety of industries, including business, health and science, AI, culture and much more.
The talkers Yulia Navalnaya are among the speakers in 2025; Meghan, Duchess of Sussex; Comedian Nikki Glaser; Activist of the climate justice Catherine Colman Flowers; Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and many more as well as a performance by Nicole Scherzinger.
The 2025 Time100 Summit was introduced by Booking.com, Circle, Diriyah Company, Prudential Financial, Toyota, Amazon, Absolut, Pfizer and Xprise.
Write Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com.
