Navalny's widow to visit Oslo

The visit of Alexey Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, is planned to Oslo on June 3 for the award ceremony organized by the Freedom Forum, Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reports.

According to Aftenposten, the award will be presented by Tanele Maseko, the widow of the late Thulani Maseko – the Swazi human rights lawyer who was killed in 2023.

“There is great symbolic value in the fact that two spouses of human rights activists, who died as a result of their work, are coming to Oslo to present and receive the award,” the City Council leader Eirik Lae Solberg is quoted by Aftenposten as saying.

Alexei Navalny was a prominent Russian opposition politician, especially known for conducting the high-level anti-corruption investigations in the country.  

On February 16, 2024, Russian prison services reported that the opposition politician died in the remote Arctic prison camp of Kharp.

According to prison services in the far northern Yamal-Nenets region, Navalny started to feel bad after a walk in the prison yard. He fell unconscious and was provided medical aid, the Russian authority informed.

Yulia Navalnaya announced that she was going to continue her husband’s work:

“I invite you to stand next to me, share not only grief and endless pain, which envelops us and does not let go. I ask you to share rage. Rage, anger, hatred for those who dared to kill our future. I address you with the words of Alexei… It’s not a shame to do little, it’s a shame to do nothing. It’s a shame to let yourself be intimidated”, she said in the video address. 

People all over the world, including Kirkenes, Arctic Norway, mourn the death of Aleksei Navalny and are laying flowers in his memory. ¨