The wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Yulia, dramatically took the stage at the Munich Security Conference, hours after being told her husband died in prison. She received a standing ovation from the crowd.
Navalny died less than a month before Russia’s election that will give Vladimir Putin six more years of power, and as he served a prison sentence widely viewed as political punishment following a poisoning attempt believed to have been ordered by the Russian government. Supporters of Navalny and western officials are calling the opposition leader’s death a political assassination.
“You all heard about the horrific news,” Yulia said, via translator. “I thought about it quite a while. I thought, ‘Should I stand here before you or should I go back to my children?’ Then I thought, ‘What would have Alexei done in my place?’”
“I’m sure that he would have been standing here on this stage,” Yulia added.
