The widow of the opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who was murdered in Russia, Julia Navalnaya, will receive the Media Freedom Prize at the Ludwig Erhard Summit. In his laudatory speech, CDU leader Merz praised the award winner as a “hero of our time.” The honoree reacts movedly – and combatively.
More than three years ago she lost her husband to the wheels of the Russian revenge justice system. On February 16, Alexei Navalny finally died under unclear circumstances under the supervision of his tormentors. Now Julia Navalnaja is sitting in an event hall on Lake Tegernsee to accept the Media Freedom Prize at the Ludwig Erhard Summit. The award goes to the visibly touched widow as well as to the memory of the deceased. “Putin killed him two months ago,” Navalnaya makes clear at the beginning of her acceptance speech.
It is almost irrelevant whether the Russian president’s henchmen once again laid hands on the man whose name Vladimir Putin absolutely did not want to mention. Or whether he died as a result of his prison conditions north of the Arctic Circle, weakened by the poison attack in August 2020, which he barely survived. Navalny is dead, he leaves behind his wife, their children Daria and Zahar, as well as a large number of supporters and less prominent people Putin opponents, thousands of whom mourned the death of the opposition politician in Russia. Despite all the repression.
Key witness Ludwig Erhard
“I have to continue our work,” says Navalnaya, admitting how difficult it is without her husband. He still found a loophole through every censorship so that “the truth shines through all the lies.” Her organization continues to work hard on its mission despite all the Kremlin’s repressive measures. “We want the Russians who criticize Putin and are against the war to have access to uncensored information,” says Navalnaya. Despite all the propaganda, most Russians wanted to continue to belong to Europe. The Russia of the future is therefore a country “that is based on the rule of law, that avoids conflicts with others, a typical European country that cooperates and trades with other European countries.”
Navalnaya anticipates the skepticism in the room that Russia is not a fantasy land. Your receipt? The namesake of the event organized by the Weimer Media Group, Ludwig Erhard. The Federal Minister of Economics and later Chancellor, the key architect of the model of the social market economy, is Navalnaya’s key witness. “If you work hard and believe in the people of the country, you can transform a terrible dictatorship and moral disaster into a normal and successful European country,” she says. “And much faster than some people would like to believe.”
“You are the heroine of our time”
Julia Navalnaya stands for this Russia, which still seems distant today, says CDU chairman Friedrich Merz in his laudatory speech. She is “the face of another Russia, the face of hope for a better future, the face that reminds us that Russia is not only made up of Putin and his compliant henchmen, but also of courageous and cosmopolitan people who, despite oppression, corruption and daily danger to life and limb,” praises the German opposition leader. He recalls how the Navalnys built up their anti-corruption organization, how they survived the attack on Alexei together, and how they traveled back to Russia after his recovery, where he was arrested at the airport and never released again.
Merz was present at the Munich Security Conference when Navalny’s death became known. “A few hours later you found the strength to address the world with a public message from the conference,” remembers Merz. “Many of us were in Munich that day and the news of Alexei Navalny’s death touched us, as did your strength and your wisdom.” In these moments, the camera repeatedly shows the award winner’s face, who is visibly struggling to compose herself. Merz is also moved by the fate of the Navalnys and his own speech.
The defamation attempts against Yulia Navalnaya showed that the Russian regime is “afraid of the courage of a woman who only fights for freedom and justice and a better Russia with the weapons of her word and her own convictions,” says Merz. “Ms. Navalnaya, you are the heroine of our time.” The free world is “infinitely grateful for your tireless commitment to justice and freedom,” says the CDU chairman. Their warning that Putin is capable of anything should be taken seriously. “And that’s why we can’t talk to each other about freezing the conflict in Ukraine,” says Merz – a clear broadside against SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich.
A role model for democracies under pressure
The jury also based its choice of Navalnaya as this year’s winner – her predecessors include Mikhail Gorbachev, Christian Lindner, Sebastian Kurz, Garri Kasparov and Volodymyr Zelenskyj – on her courage to continue her husband’s work. “The Navalny couple is being honored for their brave and non-violent fight against a brutal dictatorship in Russia. They are the faces of a better, a new, free and democratic Russia,” reads publisher Christiane Goetz-Weimer, wife of ntv.de Writing publisher Wolfram Weimer, from the jury verdict.
In her introduction of the prize, which has been awarded since 2017, the President of the Bavarian State Parliament, Ilse Aigner, also praised the winner’s determination. “Dear Ms. Navalny, I really salute your strength, your courage,” says Aigner. “Putin is on the rise and corpses, corpses line his path inside and out.” Germany knows from its own past where nationalism and the madness of conquest lead. This makes it all the more important to protect the achievements of democracy and freedom against growing populism. “To be successful, we have to become a lot braver,” says Aigner, looking at Navalnaya. “There are outstanding role models for this.”