Tuesday Briefing: Navalny’s Widow Speaks Out

In a video released yesterday, Yulia Navalnaya said she would carry on her husband’s work to challenge President Vladimir Putin’s autocratic rule and called on his followers to rally alongside her.

“I ask you to share my rage,” she told Navalny’s followers in the video posted to his YouTube feed, “to share my rage, anger and hatred of those who have dared to kill our future.”

She blamed Putin for her husband’s death and suggested that Navalny’s team was investigating the circumstances of his death in prison, which was announced by Russian authorities on Friday.

Analysis: Navalnaya, 47, has long shunned the spotlight. But now, she is poised to emerge as a leader of the fractured pro-democracy movement. The dangers and hurdles she faces in trying to unite the opposition from outside Russia are significant.

Crackdown: At least 366 people have been detained in 39 cities across Russia since Navalny was pronounced dead, according to rights groups. Anton Troianovski, our Moscow bureau chief, told us that rights groups had said many of those detained were just laying flowers.

“Even doing that is a very dangerous statement in today’s Russia,” he said. “And at the same time, on state television, which is the main news medium in Russia today, there is pretty much no reporting on what has happened.”