“Vladimir Putin killed my husband,” said Yulia Navalnaya. “By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me — half of my heart and half of my soul. But I still have the other half, and it tells me that I have no right to give up.” Watch her here.
Evgenia Kara-Murza expressed her solidarity:
Mrs. Kara-Murza is the wife of Vladimir Kara-Murza, another of Putin’s political prisoners, still alive. Twice, Kremlin agents tried to kill Kara-Murza with poison. (They tried to kill Navalny that way, too, in 2020. They then found other ways.) Kara-Murza could have gone into exile, but refused. So did Alexei Navalny. So did Boris Nemtsov — murdered in 2015 within sight of the Kremlin.
Here is some more from Evgenia Kara-Murza:
In 2017, I talked with Vladimir — Vladimir Kara-Murza. I asked him what his wife thought about the dangers of his work. He answered, “If you ask her, she’ll say, ‘I knew what I was signing up for.’” He then said — blushing slightly — “I’m grateful to have such a woman in my life.”
After Vladimir was arrested and imprisoned, in 2022, I recorded a podcast with Evgenia. Here is an excerpt of what she said:
“When we were dating, 20 years ago, I was looking at him and thinking, ‘You know, I can imagine spending my life with this man. He’s smart, he’s funny, he’s honorable. He has so much integrity.’ Later, when the poisonings and persecutions began, I thought, ‘I wish our lives could be a little more boring.’ But I do admire Vladimir. I’ve always admired and respected him for his principled stand, and I would never have him any different.”
Why did Vladimir insist on working in Russia, instead of from foreign soil? Evgenia said this: “He believes that he would not have the moral right to call on people to fight if he were not sharing the same risks.”
(True, he would have taken risks even in exile. Putin is not too particular about where his critics happen to be.)
Last summer, I had a conversation with Natan Sharansky. Here is an excerpt from the resulting piece:
During his nine years in the Gulag, Sharansky had a great asset — his wife, Avital, who was free in Israel and campaigning for him all over the world. Sharansky has long said, “The biggest mistake the KGB made was to let Avital out of the country.” The KGB thought they could break the couple apart, because they were young and impatient, and one would be in a faraway land and the other would be in prison. They did not break the couple apart. Natan and Avital did not see each other for twelve years and were utterly at one.
Kara-Murza has a wife, Evgenia. Navalny has a wife, Yulia. They too are in the Free World, campaigning for their husbands. Avital Sharansky has spoken with Evgenia Kara-Murza. Her main message is this: It is the job of the spouse to keep the name of the prisoner alive in the public consciousness. It will be easier at first, much harder as time goes on.
Spare a thought for Yulia Navalnaya and Evgenia Kara-Murza as they bear the unbearable with hard-to-fathom courage.