Navalny's widow seeks to rally divided Russian opposition
by Anna MALPAS
Alexei Navalny's widow received a standing ovation as she spoke in a packed church in Berlin Sunday on the anniversary of the Russian opposition leader's death behind bars.
After avoiding the spotlight when the politician and anti-corruption campaigner was alive, Yulia Navalnaya has taken up her late husband's cause and spoken at international forums including the Munich Security Conference this month.
Tears ran down faces in the audience as she spoke, sometimes breaking into laughter as she recalled Navalny's ability to connect with supporters.
Amid the outpouring of grief, though, some of Navalny's supporters expressed doubts about the network he set up and his legacy, following disputes between prominent opposition figures.
Navalnaya urged Russians living in exile to protest on behalf of those back home.
"I think wherever we are, we must come out (to demonstrate) for those people in Russia who can't come out."
"Let's be their voice," she said.
In Russia people "are afraid to come out", she said, emphasizing the privileged position of those in Berlin.
"Here of course we can feel free but people in Russia are hostages of the regime."
She urged those gathered to attend an anti-war march in Berlin on March 1, timed to come soon after the anniversary of Navalny's death and as Russia's war in Ukraine enters a fourth year.
"All of you come, please," she said.
In Moscow, people stood in line Sunday to lay flowers at Navalny's grave despite overt surveillance of those going to the cemetery.
"Those people (in Russia) who come out in such a situation are very brave and I'm very grateful to them," said Navalnaya.
A giant screen showing video footage of Navalny placed close to a giant figure of Christ on the cross.
At a separate memorial event outside Berlin's Russian Embassy, laborer Yuri Korolyov said "Alexei Navalny is like Jesus".
"He is a man who died for his idea," said the 32-year-old from the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
- Opposition rift -
Attending Navalnaya's memorial event were several opposition figures living in exile including Navalny's former close aide Leonid Volkov and Ilya Yashin, a former Moscow city lawmaker freed in a prisoner swap last year.
But the opposition has been torn apart by very public disputes involving wealthy donors and a hammer attack on Volkov.
Pavel, a 29-year-old seeking refugee status in Germany, said he hoped "the rift between the opposition's opinion leaders will be ended and... they won't attack each other".
"I'm pessimistic about this, unfortunately," he said, waiting outside the church in freezing temperatures.
One man watching the embassy memorial, who gave his name as Dmitry, said he saw no future for Navalnaya or the structures Navalny set up.
"I think that without him -- even in prison -- the system of Navalny's regional offices has no opposition force" and "will very soon cease existence," he predicted.
He added that "what Yulia Navalnaya does, I think is not the right path", calling for more radical methods.
The leading opposition figures "all argue between themselves," said Varvara, a 20-year-old politics student from Russia, holding two white roses to lay at the Navalny memorial.
"There's no one at the level of Navalny, and I don't think there will be in the near future."
© Agence France-Presse