Last week, Russian authorities said 47-year-old Alexei Navalny died suddenly in an Arctic prison.
Paris:
Alexei Navalny’s top lawyer Olga Mikhailova said on Wednesday that the opposition leader would “influence history” in life or death, and paid tribute to the late Russian opposition icon Emotional respect.
Mikhailova is arguably the most high-profile member of Navalny’s defense team, having defended the opposition leader for 16 years.
She has often been photographed standing by Putin’s side as President Vladimir Putin’s top critic attempts to clear his name in a years-long legal tug-of-war with the Kremlin.
Mikhailova herself is now the target of a criminal investigation. She left Russia last October and is applying for asylum in France.
“Alexei Navalny is an amazing, courageous, charismatic politician,” Mikhailova said at a Russian opposition event in Paris, looking visibly frustrated.
“The authorities claim that he is dead. Even if it turns out that he was killed, I believe that he will not only go down in history, but will also influence the course of history in the future,” Mikhailova told dozens of people, her voice heard Sometimes it breaks.
Russian authorities said on Friday that Navalny, 47, died suddenly in an Arctic prison. The news sent his supporters around the world into shock.
Speaking at an event organized by the Russian Free Association, Mikhailova sometimes spoke of Navalny in the present tense.
“He’s not like a normal person. He’s an iron man,” she said.
In 2020, Navalny nearly died from poisoning with the Soviet-designed nerve agent Novichok. After receiving treatment in Germany, he returned to Russia in 2021, where he was immediately arrested and subsequently jailed.
Mikhailova said she warned opposition politicians not to return to Russia.
“In Berlin, I told him, ‘You will be jailed for 10 years,'” Mikhailova said.
“He smiled and replied: ‘You always said I would go to jail. Well, then you would defend me.'”
Upon his return, he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Last year, a Russian court sentenced him to 19 years in prison on extremism charges.
Russian authorities subsequently cracked down on Navalny’s defense team.
In October, three lawyers defending Navalny were detained and accused of participating in an “extremist organization.”
Mikhailova said she was on vacation abroad when three members of her defense team were arrested and she decided not to return to Russia because she knew she would be imprisoned.
She wrote on Facebook in January that life abroad was difficult. “We have no home and a lot of problems,” she added.
In mid-February, a Moscow court ordered Mikhailova’s arrest in absentia.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
