Still reeling from the just-delivered news of her husband’s death, Navalnaya stunned and wowed an audience of world leaders with an impromptu speech at the annual Munich Security Conference last week. She received a standing ovation and was greeted by Vice President Kamala Harris and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, representing the U.S. and offering their condolences.
Navalnaya squarely blamed Putin for Navalny’s death – a belief shared by many Western officials – and demanded the Russian president be brought to justice.
“There should be another person in my place, but this person was killed by Vladimir Putin,” she said in the later televised address. “Putin killed the father of my children, Putin took away the most precious thing I had, the closest and most beloved person – but Putin also took Navalny from you.”
She called on his followers to keep up the fight. And she called on European leaders to refuse to recognize upcoming presidential elections in Russia, where Putin is the virtually unchallenged candidate.
After her comments, Elon Musk’s social platform X, formerly known as Twitter, yanked her account. However, the company restored it later, saying its removal was a mistake.