The widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says she has thought about him every day since his death exactly a year ago.
Writing on Instagram, Yulia Navalnaya said: “Love you so much, miss you so much.”
Staunch Putin critic Mr Navalny, 47, died mysteriously in an Arctic penal colony on 16 February 2024. His body is buried at Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow.
The politician, who campaigned against official corruption and led major anti-Kremlin protests, was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism. Russia’s federal prison service said he had become unwell after a walk and lost consciousness.
It comes as supporters have been helping to choose a new design for a “memorial” to Navalny in the cemetery on the anniversary of his death.
The winning design
Called “Titan and Stone”, the tombstone is made up of three blocks of black granite and a metal inscription with his name in capital letters and no other text.
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The first block will be placed at the base, covering the burial site. The vertical part will be installed on a horizontal plate. And the third granite block, slightly more than half the height of the second block, will be placed on the text insert.
It was the winner from a shortlist of three which were chosen by the family, and has been designed by someone who wants to remain anonymous. It received 40% of the online votes.
The Navalny memorial website said: “Despite the fact that the letters are part of the power structure for the upper block, they are not located along the entire length and width of the lower stone, but stand in the middle, retreating from the edges on all sides, which creates a feeling of fragility and at the same time unbreakability.”
“And despite the fact that this tombstone contains nothing but smooth stone and metal letters, it is symbolic and suggests reflection on the meaning contained in it,” it added.
The statement also said: “We need to complete the design project, produce the monument and have it installed. This may take several months and will require financing.”
It has appealed to people to donate to make the memorial a reality.
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Widow’s tribute to Navalny
On the anniversary of his death, Yulia Navalnaya, 48, wrote on Instagram: “I used to think that the phrase ‘a year has passed and there hasn’t been a day I didn’t remember’ was total nonsense. And it turned out that this is not nonsense.
“A year. The whole year. And there was not a single day that I didn’t think about Alexei. I didn’t laugh with him, didn’t consult him, didn’t argue with him.”
After his death, Western leaders, Navalny’s allies and his widow accused the Kremlin of having him killed, which Russia denies.
US intelligence agencies later determined Russian President Vladimir Putin likely did not order his death.
