Navalnana gave her first interview after her husband's death. “This is not a Russian war”
Yulia Navalnaya gave an interview to the American newspaper “Time” for the first time since her husband's death. Alexei Navalny died in mid-February in a penal colony in eastern Russia.
The interview was conducted by journalist Simon Shuster. The conversation brought up the topic of the war in Ukraine.
“This is clearly not Russia's war.”
Navalna said that the war in Ukraine that has been going on since February 2022 “is not the Russians' war” but “Vladimir Putin's war.” As she pointed out, in fact, the president's move, which ordered the invasion, has support only among the “aggressive minority” of the country's citizens.
As she said, Ukrainians are not open to this – “they are not looking for anti-war Russians” – although such “exist”. She pointed out that not everyone has the courage to go out on the streets and take part in protests. – Not everyone is a hero – she pointed out. She added that there are different ways to fight the Ukraine issue. In her opinion, Russians who are against armed conflict need to be supported, which, however, Ukraine is not doing. She indicated it was an “error.”
Shuster, a journalist born in Moscow, asked her if she was willing to cooperate with Ukraine. She did not answer this question, admitting that the answer is “difficult” and does not depend only on her. She also recalled that she supported Volodymyr Zelensky in the presidential elections in Ukraine because of his wife, Olena. “I liked her,” she said.
Biden's speech
The journalist also recalled the article by “The Washington Post”. The editorial team unofficially reported that the first lady of Ukraine did not come to the speech of Joe Biden, the president of the United States, because she was supposed to sit next to the widow of Alexei Navalny.
The oppositionist's wife admitted that she learned about the whole matter from the media. Before the American newspaper's article appeared, she was not aware that Zelenskaya was also invited to the speech of the 46th US president. She said that, if true, it was a cause for “shame.”
Earlier, before the interview with Time, Navalnaya wrote a letter that was published before the presidential elections in Russia in mid-March. “Putin is not a politician, he is a gangster. “Alexei Navalny became famous in Russia and hated by Putin precisely because, from the beginning of his fight, he openly described Putin and his allies as gangsters who seized and used power only to enrich themselves personally and satisfy their own ambitions,” she said.
