A geopolitical conference turned deeply personal on Friday as senior officials from around the globe heard first-hand from Alexei Navalny’s wife hours after news broke of his reported death.
Yulia Navalnaya was in Germany for the Munich security conference, which brings together national leaders, foreign ministers and experts, when Russia’s prison service announced that Navalny had died in jail.
As officials at the conference were taking in the news, Navalnaya unexpectedly took to the stage, addressing a crowd of politicians and diplomats just after the US vice-president, Kamala Harris.
Standing at a podium usually reserved for senior politicians, Navalnaya said: “I thought: should I stand here before you or should I go back to my children? And then I thought: what would have Alexei done in my place? And I’m sure that he would have been standing here on this stage.”
It was an unusually emotional and personal moment at an event where prominent figures deliver often scripted political messages and participants are usually in a rush to get to their next appointment.
The Portuguese foreign minister, João Cravinho, said it was a “deeply touching moment”, while the US senator Brian Schatz said: “Moving to hear from Yulia Navalnaya just moments after she and the world learned of her husband’s death in a Russian prison.”
Hannah Neumann, a German Green member of the European parliament who was in the room, said the audience had been expecting “another very high-level statesperson, and the moment Yulia entered, everyone was like, wow, in terms of how brave it is, in such an emotionally troubling situation, to actually take the stage.
“There was one woman sitting next to me, who I think knows her, and she just started crying immediately.” She said Navalnaya “clearly didn’t look fresh but also not totally broken – just very, very focused and strong, I think.”
Liz Schrayer, the president of the US Global Leadership Coalition, said: “You could have heard a pin drop.”
As condolences were pouring in, Navalnaya told the crowd that she did not know whether to believe the reports of her husband’s death.
Neumann said Navalnaya’s message was a reminder not to automatically take unverified reports as fact.
If the reports were accurate, Navalnaya told the crowd, Putin and his allies “will be brought to justice, and this day will come soon”.
