Friday February 16, Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny died at the age of 47, in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 29-year sentence.
Since then, everyone has agreed that her daughter Dasha will continue the fight alongside her mother Yulia Navalnaïa.
Because Vladimir Putin's former number one enemy has never been alone in his political "war" against the Russian president's regime.
He leaves behind a family: his wife Ioulia first, but also his daughter Daria (better known by her nickname Dasha) and his son Zakhar, 16 years old.
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Aged 23, Dasha Navalnaya is already one of the rare voices of opposition in Russia.
And this, although she lives in the United States where she has studied social psychology and political science at Stanford University, in California, since 2019. That being said, despite the threats, she is determined to return, a day, settle in Moscow.
“Moscow is the best city, it has everything,” she proclaimed to the German daily
Der Spiegel
in 2021. Plus, I miss the people in Russia.
They are so different from Californians.
Russians understand that life is not ideal, but that we can and should try to improve society.
I like this."
Media figure
Today, whether in the media - CNN for example - or on her social networks, the Russian does not hesitate to urge her fellow citizens to mobilize.
His objective: the same as that of his father, to bring down Vladimir Putin.
In her LinkedIn bio, she describes herself: “I look forward to deepening my understanding of the complex mechanisms that drive political change around the world.
My goal is not only to contribute to academic discourse, but also to actively participate in the creation of policies that reflect the values of freedom, equality, and integrity.
I have experience in data analysis, research, public relations and public speaking.”
Despite her young age, Dasha Navalnaya already has experience with the general public who have seen her on several occasions.
In June 2021, it was she who received the “Award for Courage” on behalf of her father – awarded by 25 human rights organizations and awarded that year to political prisoners from Russia and Belarus.
She then explained that her father, imprisoned in Russia, had written her a letter in preparation for her first speech at a major public event.
“In his letter, my father asks me today to present this award to every prisoner in Russia and Belarus.
He writes that most of them are in a much worse situation than him, because they are not as well known or famous, but they should know that they are not alone, nor forgotten,” he said in English. perfect for the young woman at the time aged 20.
Before recounting, moved, how the police had entered, for the first time, the family apartment when she was 10 years old.
“To end this speech, I would like to repeat something my father once said: 'Russia deserves to be free and happy, and it will be.'
And I also firmly believe it.”
“A normal childhood”
A few months after this sensational entry onto the international scene, Dasha Navalnaya gave her very first major interview to
Spiegel
.
Despite the political commitment of her father, who was nicknamed the “black beast” of the Kremlin, she explained to the German media that she had a “normal” childhood.
“I was born into a normal family and had a normal childhood.
When I was 10, Dad was taken into custody for the first time, and it was something new.
But I talked to my parents and learned that even though the police don't like us, Dad does the right thing.
I have always been proud of him, even with the fears for his life and ours.
He wants the best for his country.
He wants my younger brother and I to have a good future in this country.”
The one who assumed she was a “daddy’s girl” also spoke of her farewells to her father, before his incarceration in a penal colony in Russia.
“I hugged him and he said, “Learn and do what you want!”
That's what he always says: 'Do what you want!'
The day before this interview, Dasha Navalnaya spoke, this time in Strasbourg in front of the European Parliament, to receive the Sakharov Prize on behalf of her father, on December 15, 2021. “European politicians who advocate pragmatism should open the history books and remember that flirting with a dictator is never effective,” she criticized.
Beside him, an empty chair symbolized his father's absence.
“Years of flirting with Putin have made him understand that to increase his popularity, he can also start a war,” she said, referring to the sound of boots that were already being heard at the border of Ukraine.
Insightful, obviously.
Two and a half months later, on February 24, 2022, Russia launched its great invasion of kyiv.